Life, Unexpected
by collegegirl52
Summary: *New title, new summary* What would happen when Martin meet a new woman in his life who is also his daughter's teacher? A whole lot of the unexpected! Martin/OFC. Some contents in the chapters are rated T. *Now on hiatus*
1. Chapter 1

**Just a story that I thought of today and expect a lot of cute father/daughter moments! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Without a Trace expect my own characters.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter One**

**-:-**

Martin Fitzgerald felt sun beaming down on his face from the curtains and from that moment, he knew that he had to open his eyes right now because this day is his six years old daughter, Sara's first day of first grade, the day that Sara was dreading of for a whole week now and the day that Martin is excited about since school had ended last summer.

Usually, Sara loved school and don't wanted summer to start because she thinks that she will never see her friends again and the big part of this, from what the older children told her, she will never get a naptime and a snack time during school ever again and the moment she start first grade, she had to do work all the time, a lot of work with no rest and cookies to eat.

The moment she heard and the moment Martin picked her up from school one afternoon, Sara ran into her father's arms and told him to don't let her go into first grade while crying her tears from her brown eyes.

Don't knowing why Sara told him that, Martin held his little girl in his arms and while cradling her and smoothing her light brown hair to comfort her, he asked her in a kind and calm voice, "Baby, why you don't want to go into the first grade?"

Being in her father's arms and without looking up to Martin, a crying Sara answered her father's question by saying to him with a cheerless voice, "Daddy, because what of the big kids told me, once I goes into the first grade, I had to work all the time and I will never get a nap time or a snack time ever again!"

"And you do know that I love nap time and snack time a lot more than doing school work. Right, Daddy?"

Understanding that, Martin kissed the top of his daughter's head and said to her with the same calming and kind voice of his, "Yeah, I know about that, Baby but what did you do after the big kids told you that?"

Looking up to her father's face right now for the first time she ran into his arms with her big brown eyes and a trembling line on her face that was her smile, Sara stared at her father's blue eyes and said to him, "Nothing, Daddy. I didn't do anything after that because it started in the hallway after the bell rang."

"One of the first grade kids came over to me after Emily founded her mommy and ran over to her and then, the kid asked me if I am a Kindergartener."

"What did you told the kid, Sara?"

Right away, Sara told him that she told the first grade kid that she is a Kindergartener and after saying the kid that, Sara looked like that she might burst into tears again when she looked into Martin's eyes again while saying to her father, "After I told him that, the kid looked at me straight in the eyes and told me in a mean voice that once I go into the first grade, I had to work all the time without no naptime and snack time at all!"

"And Daddy, that kid was big and mean!"

"Oh, Baby. Did other nice older kids or teachers saw this and tried to stop this?"

In return, Sara shook her head and said to him right away, "No, Daddy."

Seeing that shaking of her head Sara just gave him, Martin know that Sara is quite sad right now but he never saw his daughter being very sad about this before and seconds later, Martin had an idea to cheer his sad daughter up and it involves food.

To do that, Martin put Sara down on the gravel courtyard and after founding a piece of soft white tissue in Sara's backpack, he gave it to Sara with a warm smile on his face while saying to her, "Here, Baby. Use this."

Looking at her father's eyes and down to his hand, Sara grabbed the tissue off of Martin's hand and begins wiping her tears away with it to make it go away.

Watching her wiping away the tears off her face, Martin waited to speak to her until she got rid of most of her tears and after she got rid most of them, Martin studied his daughter's cute face with a loving grin on his face and asked her, "Hey, Sara. Want me to tell you something?"

Without saying a single word to him, Sara just nodded to her father and the moment he gave that nod of her, Martin looked at his baby girl's brown eyes again and with the same grin on his face, Martin Fitzgerald said to her, "Sara, I know that you'll miss Kindergarten and don't want to go into the first grade because of what you told me but I am having a good feeling that you'll like first grade even more than Kindergarten because you'll still be in the same class with Emily and Jane and you'll have more exciting stories to tell me about school and even through that you might get no naptime and snack time and once school start again, we might get a snack after school together and if I can, maybe a naptime."

"Fine with that, Sara?"

After hearing of all of those great things from her father about the first grade a moment ago, Sara thought about it for a few seconds and the moment she thought that her father's idea is a great one, Sara studied her father's face this time and after staring at him for a couple of seconds before speaking, a smile had appeared on her face when she looked at her father's face with her eyes when she answered his question by saying to him and giving him a kiss on his cheek, "I'm fine with that, Daddy and can I ask you a question?"

The moment he got kissed by his daughter, Martin grinned at her for giving him such a sweet one and said to her, "Sure, Sara. What's it?"

With a sweet smile on her face, Sara asked him if they get some ice cream together.

Martin laughed when his daughter told him that and right away after kissing her forehead, he said to Sara, "Sure, Baby. Let get some before we goes into the office. Fine with that, Baby?"

Agreeing with him and liking the idea of getting a sweet treat before seeing Uncle Danny and Uncle Jack plus Auntie Sam, Auntie Viv and Auntie Elena whose last day of working at Missing Persons before heading over to White Collar was the exactly same day as the day that Martin and Sara will be getting some ice cream, Sara smiled at her kind, smart, and sweet as hell Daddy again and said to him, "Yeah, Daddy. I'm fine with that and let go right now!"

Martin laughed at the words Sara just said to him and told her that he's fine with that before getting hold of her little hand and with the little hand, they headed over to the ice cream shop near the school to have some ice cream together before going back to work just in time for the surprise farewell party for Elena that Danny and the rest of the team gave her with most of the other agents in the MPU were in too, wishing Elena luck in the White Collar division.

During the many stories that the agents in MPU had with Elena, one of the highlights of the party was from Sara who ran over to Elena and gave her a hug and a huge kiss on her face and told her that to have fun in White Collar and she will miss her here in Missing Persons.

Most of the agents were in awe when they saw that great moment from Fitzgerald's little girl who headed back to playing with Sofie especially Elena who love Sara and treated the brown-eyed girl like her own daughter and Martin who is Sara's father for a year and a half now, still had no idea how the kind and smart and sweet little girl is his daughter.

That he had no clue of that theory.

Three months later, Martin smiled when he thought of that moment again and knowing that he had to wake his little girl of his this morning after getting that the time is around seven in the morning, Martin quickly pulled the covers off of him and putting his feet on the warm/cold hardwood floor, Martin got himself up and got out of the room to go over to his daughter's room to wake her on this important day.

--

**If anybody was reading this and seeing this notice, tell me what you thought about this. I really like some. :-)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**-:-**

Once Martin walked down the hallway to the end where Sara's bedroom is at and was at the door, Martin put his hand on the doorknob and to not wake his daughter up yet, he silently opened the door and after doing that, Martin got himself inside the bedroom.

Seconds after getting inside, Martin smiled at his daughter who was sleeping so peacefully with a sweet smile on her face and a teddy bear in her arms under the yellow covers on her bed and knew right away that he had to stop this sweet moment that he is seeing right now because he had to wake her up and get her ready for school which she doesn't want to do in a change of mind about it over the past three months.

Watching his sleeping child, Martin smiled at her one more time and said to her with a slightly disappointed tone in his voice, "Sorry about this, Sara but I had to do this. Try to don't blame this on school coming back this fast and your father, okay?"

Waiting for a response in her sleep, Sara just gave a gentle and sweet sigh to him and again, Martin gave her another smile before heading off to the occupied twin-sized bed and sat down on it to wake Sara Fitzgerald up.

The moment he sat down and put his hand on Sara's body, Martin got closer to her face and after watching her face one more time before saying to the sleepy child with a soft whisper, "Hey, Baby. Time to wake up!"

After whispering that to her, Martin gave her some breathing space and started waiting for his daughter to wake up that morning which happened right away when Sara opened up her eyelids, revealing her chocolate brown eyes and after doing that, she gave Martin a small moan and looked at her father's eyes while greeting him, "Morning, Daddy."

In return, Martin smiled at her and said back to her, "Morning, Baby."

Sara heard what her father just told her and knowing what day it is, Sara looked at her father's eyes again and said to him with a neutral tone in her voice, "Daddy, is today the day I go back to school?"

Hearing that neutral tone in the little girl's voice, Martin looked straight at the brown eyes of her and answered the question by saying to her, "Yeah, Baby. It is."

"Are you sure?" asked Sara who heard the words Martin was saying out of his mouth and just wanting to make sure that today is not the first day of school that just that day and for the rest of the week is just the rest of summer with day camp, the playground, the swimming pool, a daily cone of ice cream, spending evenings and weekends with Daddy, Uncle Roger, Aunties Jamie and Allie and her favorite cousin and friend, Ava , hanging out at the FBI building with her other favorite uncles and aunts, and simply just spending time with her family and friends.

She wanted more of that summer but it had to wait because in her opinion, evil school.

Watching Sara's face staring straight at him and knowing the answer to what the girl staring at him's question, Martin continued watching his daughter's face and said to her, "Sara, sure that I am sure about that. Why are you asking me this? You don't want to go to school yet?"

Sara was quiet for a few seconds after hearing that and after thinking of the right words to say to him, she just stared at her father who is still waiting for an answer from his baby girl and right away, Sara said out to him, "Yes."

After he heard that 'yes' from her, Martin sighed to himself and started thinking of something to make Sara not worrying about summer being ended and school coming back in with those words that Sara love to hear from her father but which words is the right ones?

Martin took a full minute to think about the right words to say to her and after thinking of the right words, Martin stared at Sara's brown eyes and said to her while smoothing her light brown hair with a kind smile on his face, "Sara, I know that you liked this summer and doesn't want it to end right now but it had to because there are other seasons that needed you to be in and I know that you like those seasons too with the same reasons that you liked summer and I am pretty sure that fall, winter and spring will miss you for not being there and remember what I told you last June when you ran over to me with tears in your eyes and asking me to not let you go into the first grade."

"Remember that, Baby?"

Clearly remembering right now because she always remembered that moment in the school yard and that yummy cone of strawberry ice cream she had at the ice cream shop and Auntie Elena's farewell party, Sara smiled when she remembered those moments of that day and gave her father a nod while saying to him, "Yeah, Daddy. I remembered that especially the ice cream and Auntie Elena's party."

Martin smiled and laughed when Sara told him that and remembering what Sara remembered about that day with the ice cream before with his blue eyes staring at the brown ones, Martin told Sara something about that.

"Good and please remember what I told you. I am having a good feeling that you'll like first grade even more than Kindergarten because you'll still be in the same class with Emily and Jane and you'll have more exciting stories to tell me about school and even through that you might get no nap time and snack time and once school start again, we might get a snack after school together and if I can, maybe a nap time."

"But on this time, summer will come back again and again for the rest of my life. Right, Daddy?"

Martin smiled at his daughter and laughed again after hearing those words of his daughter before saying to him, "Right, Sara and are you ready for getting ready for school now?"

In return, Sara stared at her Daddy again with her brown eyes shining at him and an adorable smile on her fair face and answered the question by saying to him, "Yup, Daddy. I am ready for school!"

Martin smiled at his daughter for that and to get her ready for school, Martin pulled the covers off a giggling Sara and after doing that, Martin picked his daughter up and away to the bathroom to get her ready for her first day of first grade at school.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**-:-**

They were late. Very late. Because they had forgotten about something the Fitzgeralds had left at home.

Sara's lunchbox.

Yes, her lunchbox.

Halfway through the route to the school, Sara was holding Martin's hand while walking over the school when she realized something.

To look for that something that she just realized, Sara looked around herself and seconds later, she noticed something.

Where's her lunchbox?

Without any thinking, Sara looked up to her father who was still walking but stopped because he saw Sara staring at him with her brown eyes and said to him with a questionable tone in her soft and sweet voice, "Daddy, I think that you might have forgotten about something to give me."

Martin heard his daughter saying that to him which got him confused. _"Forgotten about something what?"_ thought by Martin after hearing that from Sara.

To see what he had forgotten about, Martin studied the things that Sara had with her. It didn't look that he had forgotten about something. Sara was in her school uniform. Sara ate her breakfast of pancakes. Sara took a bath, brushed her tiny white teeth and used the toilet. Heck, he even did Sara's request of letting him tying her hair in a ponytail because in her opinion, her Daddy makes the best ponytails and for the reason that they were always tight but not too tight and the hair tie never comes out when she jumps around.

Smiling of that compliment that his own daughter gave him about him putting a ponytail in her brown hair, Martin looked around Sara to look for that forgotten something when he realized something.

Where's her lunchbox?

After noticing that he didn't gave Sara her lilac plastic lunchbox and without knowing about it, a weird look had appeared on his face that Sara knows about. Her father had figured it out.

The moment she saw that weird look on her father's face, Sara started at him with a questionable look on her fair face and asked him, "Daddy, what are you doing to do?"

Hearing that, Martin studied the questionable look and started to have an idea and if they keep standing there instead of going back home, they will be even behind schedule than right now. Martin doesn't want that to happen and to do the plan, Martin squatted down to his daughter and while staring at Sara's still confused face, Martin told her something.

"What's it, Daddy?"

Martin looked at Sara's brown eyes again and with a soft grin on his face while putting his hand on Sara's shoulder, Martin said to her with a calm and steady tone in his voice, "Baby, we are going back to the apartment to see if your lunchbox is still there and if we found it, we are going back to school."

"Okay with that, Sara?"

Hearing that question from her Daddy, Sara studied her father's face while thinking of something to say to him about it.

Martin studied and smiled at his daughter who is doing her thinking face right now and after staring at those clear brown eyes and a small but adorable smile of hers, Sara's smile went a little bigger when she caught her father staring at her with the blue eyes of his when she answered his question with an answer that she just thought of, "Okay, Daddy. Let go but we got to get to the school right away because I don't want to miss it!"

Knowing that his daughter don't want to miss her first morning of first grade at the school, Martin gave a quick kiss on Sara's forehead before saying to her, "Fine with that, Sara. Let go now."

After hearing that from her father, Sara smiled at him and grabbed his hand again so the both of them can go back to the apartment to get her forgotten lunchbox, sitting on the kitchen counter where Martin's cell phone is also at, ringing and waiting to be pick up by the man who had forgotten it.

When they got home and founded the lunchbox, Martin was very surprised that he had forgotten that he left his cell phone there next to the lunchbox, ringing it speakers off. After picking up the phone to see who was calling him, a frown on his face had appeared on his face when he saw who was calling. Promising himself that he had to tell the person who was calling him exactly what had happened to him, Martin quietly said to himself with a little anger, "Danny Taylor, you are a very impatient man!" before hearing his little girl's voice, saying to him, "Daddy, who was calling you?"

Martin turned around to Sara after hearing that and founding her standing in front of him with the lunchbox in her hand and there was a very confused look on her face, staring at him with it. In return, Martin smiled at her again and answered the question by saying to her, "That was nothing, Sara. Let go back to the school now, okay."

Sara just nodded her head to Martin and after seeing that, a smiling Martin grabbed his six years old daughter's hand to get out of the apartment with everything they had with them in case that the both of them doesn't want to go back home to get their other 'forgotten things' and after closing and locking the door behind them, they did the quicker way out of the building by using the elevator and headed out the doors to get to the school.

It was a little after nine when they finally get to the school. There was not a single soul in the schoolyard which means that school had just started for the day. After seeing nobody in the schoolyard beside her and her father, Sara looked around the large schoolyard while saying to the person who actually made them late for the first time since school ended last June and being a forgetful person earlier and this man is not her Daddy with a slightly angry voice of hers, "Daddy, we're late!!"

Knowing that his daughter is a little pissed off at him for making them late for the first day of school because he suddenly became a forgetful person today with the lunchbox and his cell phone, the only thing that Martin could do to his daughter right now was to comfort and calm her down by saying these words softly and calmly to Sara, "I know, Sara. I know but let get inside so this will be over."

In return, a still angry Sara just stomped her feet on the ground with her shoes. Martin heard her tiny feet stomping on the concrete floor and said to her with a slight angry tone in his voice while giving her that look on his face when he gets disappointed of what Sara was doing or when she was about to throw him a tantrum, "Not now, Sara Elizabeth Fitzgerald!"

Hearing her full name from her father's voice, the voice when he gets mad at her for doing something to herself that he doesn't like at all or when she was about to throw a fit at him which didn't happened a lot before now but Sara knew that she's making her father sad and she doesn't want that to happen especially when he's still recovering from his recent break-up with that Kim woman who ended up breaking Sara's Daddy's heart and trust over something that Sara doesn't understands at all but the child knows that her father, Martin Fitzgerald had to used force on her and after that, when he went back to home for the night and watched his only girl right now, sleeping on her bed, cuddling with a teddy bear of hers under a blanket for a long time before heading off to bed himself.

After that moment, Sara was the one who had to take care of her sad father who was having a hard time with the break-up and it was killing her over the last few months. Hopefully, in the future, her father will recover from this and went back to dating somebody else, somebody who her father likes a lot but don't want to break his heart and trust or it will be the same thing over and over again.

Watching her father's blue eyes staring at her brown eyes, Sara stared back to him and said out to him, "Fine", telling him that she will stop this scene of anger that she had with her.

Hearing that word from her who seems to be calm down by this, Martin grinned at his baby girl and said to her while grabbing her small hand again, "Good then and come on, Sweetie or we'll keep your teacher waiting."

With her hand into the hand which she holds on to each and every single day since she met him, Sara looked up to him with brown eyes and a bright and wide smile of hers before saying to him with a sweet voice, "Okay, Daddy!"

After hearing her calling him 'Daddy' with her sweet voice at the end of it, Martin could do nothing but smile at her again. Right now, Sara is the only girl that he loves right now. Not because that she's his daughter but the brown-eyed girl is his world. Each morning and half the time, they woke up together and spent the morning together every day before heading off their separate ways for the day and after they comes back from the places they had been for the day, they cooks dinner together and just relax with each other without any distractions before heading off to bed to read some stories together and suddenly, heading off to sleep. With all of that in one day, those days could be the best days of his life because he gets to be with Sara, his baby girl, sweetie pie, and shining light in his dark world right now.

The moment he thought about that, he founded the girl with those three descriptions, staring at him with an odd look on her face. Seeing that odd look of Sara, Martin smiled at his daughter again and together, they headed over to room 114 to start the first day of first grade for Sara Fitzgerald.

A few minutes later when the Fitzgeralds got to the door of room 114, Martin peeked through to see if anybody is still here which is very true because through the glass window, Martin saw the children at their desks while looking up to a young, petite woman with long reddish brown hair in a yellow dress. Martin had figured out that the woman he's staring at is Sara's first grade teacher, Ms. Walker but she was nothing of what Martin thought of she looks like. She's actually a beautiful woman and he couldn't stop staring at her.

While admiring Ms. Walker and inside the classroom, Emily and Jane noticed something outside the classroom door. When the two little girls turns around to see who was outside the classroom and looked through the window, they were a bunch of smiling little girls when they saw somebody that we knows, their best friend, Sara's Daddy, Mr. Fitzgerald was standing there.

From outside the classroom and while holding Sara's hand at the same time when Sara was asking him, "Daddy, can I go in right now?!", Martin just said to her with a soft and quiet voice, "Not yet, Sara!" "Really, Daddy? Because I think that you are staring at my new teacher." said a smiling Sara.

After hearing that from his daughter about him staring at the teacher, Martin felt himself blushing and said out to Sara, "No, I was not! Why you thought of that?"

The only thing that Sara could do now that she shrugged her shoulders and told her father that she just knows things and at that moment, Martin heard the door being opened and then, he heard a sweet, soft voice with an accent that sounded like she's from the Carolinas or Virginia, asking him, "Hey, are the two of you the Fitzgeralds? Sara and her father actually?"

The moment he head that question with the sound of her voice, Martin turned around and founded the beautiful teacher there with her dark blue eyes staring at him, long wavy reddish-brown hair framing her face, and she had a pretty nice smile while crossing her arms with the door being wide opened with the students were staring at them with their eyes instead of doing their work in their chairs.

In front of the teacher, the students, and his daughter, Martin Fitzgerald just went and said to Ms. Walker, "Who?"

**--**

**Sorry about the long wait. I had a bad case of the writer's block and I was pretty busy with school and all but I am hoping that this will repays it. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**-:-**

Sara watched her father saying that single word that came out of his mouth and was quite disappointed about it. There, at that moment when he finally gets to talk to her new teacher and the only word that came out of his mouth was 'who?'. Since when her wonderful, kind and smart father named Martin Fitzgerald had gone off to and came back as this idiot! Probably after they ate their breakfast so the both of them can get ready for school and her father, work.

Watching Miss Walker stared at Martin oddly and asked him after hearing the one word, "Mr. Fitzgerald, are you okay? Is you Sara's father?" Martin looked a little less blank than a few seconds ago but still had no words to think of to say to the teacher which made Sara started rubbing her temples, being horrid of what she saw and was thinking of an idea to help her father on this. This came thirty seconds later.

Before Miss Walker can get closer to Martin to see what is going on right now and asked him again, "Mr. Fitzgerald, is everything still okay?", Sara grabbed her father's hand one more time and said to him with a calm tone in her voice, "Come on, she was talking about us. You're Martin Fitzgerald, my father and I'm Sara Fitzgerald, your daughter, remember?"

Martin turned to Sara after he heard that and saw her, standing next to him while holding his hand. Staring at her with his blue eyes, Martin stared at his daughter and answered her question about him being her father and her being his daughter and seeing if he remember that by saying to her with a calm tone in his voice, "Yes, Sara. I know. I was just……"

"Stunned?"

Hearing one of the exactly same words he was about to use before someone else ended up using instead, making it came from a female instead of him, Martin turned to the smiling woman who finished his sentence and with a grin on his face, Martin looked at Miss Walker and said to her, "Yeah, that and also a little frustrated too. Sara and I were having a tough start this morning."

"How tough, Mr. Fitzgerald?" asked Miss Walker whose blue eyes are darker than he thought. With the same grin on his face, Martin slightly shrugged one of his shoulders and answered her question by saying to her, "How about forgotten your daughter's lunch box and also founding out that you had forgotten your cell phone at home in the process?"

"Oooh, that was rough. I know about that. Ended up forgetting your cell phone at home I meant." said Miss Walker who completely understood what Mr. Fitzgerald was saying to her. Actually had thought of another item you can actually forget that you had left behind at your home, Martin said to her with the same smile on his face, "Yeah, and keys also can be very forgetful things too."

"Yes, I agreed with that also." said a smiling Miss Walker. Martin ended up still smiling at Miss Walker, thinking that they will have a nice teacher-parent relationship together because of this in the new school year unless the teacher ended up wanting to take this into a brand-new level like Sara's Kindergarten teacher who had tried to do it with him last year. Miss Reichs actually freaked him out with her out-of-nowhere flirting and Martin ended up wanting to put his daughter into another Kindergarten classroom but couldn't because Miss Reichs' flirtation actually came into it breaking point about a week before the school year ended and if he ended up seeing Miss Reichs this year also and ended up receiving that again, he will put a some type of lawsuit on her and hope that she will go away but with Miss Walker, she seem like a nice, smart, hopefully not crazy woman. This might be going to be a good year.

Meanwhile, watching her father and Miss Walker talking about cell phones and keys, one of the two things she can't use at all unless she had an adult with her, mostly her father or her aunts and uncles, Sara wanted this to end! Not because that she want her father to don't talk to her teacher since the talking might be a good thing between her father and new teacher but she know that her father had to go to work right now because he's already late and his daughter want the first day of first grade to start for her and the first thing she did to stop him was to say something to him.

"Daddy, did you forget about something?" asked Sara in her usual sweet and calm voice.

Not knowing what his daughter was talking about, Martin excused himself from the conversation he was having with Miss Walker and after getting the mouthing of 'fine with that' from Miss Walker who had the same smile on her face, Martin smiled at her again before looking down at the six years old girl and said to her, "What's it, Sara?"

Without a beat, Sara stared at her father's blue eyes with her brown eyes and said to him with a smile on her face, "Daddy, you had to go to work right now. You're very late."

Suddenly remembering about work right now, Martin stared at his daughter and thought to himself, _"Oh, crap!"_ After seeing his daughter giving him such a weird look on her face, Martin just smiled at his daughter and put his hand on Sara's light brown hair and started smoothing it with his fingers before turning to Miss Walker who is still waiting for him to talk some more.

With the same smile on his face, Martin apologized to Miss Walker by saying to her, "I'm sorry about this, Miss Walker but I better get going because I'm very late for work and I know that you had to teach a class right now and….."

Getting cut off by the woman he is talking to who ended up telling Martin with a soft smile on her face, "Yes, I know about that and if you want to talk to me some more about other things, you can drop by after school when you pick Sara up, Mr. Fitzgerald."

"Please, call me Martin." said Martin who would like to talk to Miss Walker some more in the future. Playing along with this, Miss Walker smiled sweetly at him and said back to him with her accent, "Okay, Martin. You can call Renee."

Martin smiled at Renee for telling him that and after taking his hand out to her; he said the beginning of his good-bye, "Nice to meet you, Renee." A smiling Renee took Martin's hand and shook a firm one while saying to him, "Nice to meet you too, Martin."

The two adults smiled some more at each other which made Sara kind of sick to her stomach and wanted this to end, Sara stared at her father and asked him with a strong tone in her voice, "Daddy, can you leave now!"

Knowing that, Martin bended down to the impatient daughter to give her a hug and a kiss on the forehead before saying to her, "Have fun at school for me, okay?"

In return, Sara nodded to her father and said to him with her eyes staring at the floor, "Okay, Daddy. I will." and then, kissed him on the cheek. Martin smiled at her for doing that and smiled at Renee again before heading off to work.

Watching Martin Fitzgerald walking away from the classroom, Renee smiled at him for having a nice chat with her earlier before turning to the students in her classroom immediately turned around in their chairs and started doing their work. Renee probably thought that they saw them and listened into the conversation she had with Martin and to get things going, Renee Walker put her arm around Sara's shoulder and smiled at her while saying to the child, "Come on, Sara. Let put your things away and head off to do some work."

"Okay." said Sara and together, they walked into the classroom before Renee closed the door until it's time for recess.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**-:-**

At recess, Sara was at the swings set with her two best friends, Emily Roberts and Jane Nichols, trying to outreach each other on the swings to see who can swing up higher. So far, it was between Sara and Jane because after Emily took her turn swinging, the strap of one of her mary janes came out and flew over to the sandbox and with the specific rules Sara made with the game of her and her friends made, the girl whose something they were wearing in the game came off and flew away from them, the girl is out of the game but the girls made the contest fun and it will not cause any problems with the three little girls _yet_.

Watching Emily on the right side of the swing set, carrying a small piece of white chalk to mark the line on how high the girl swings on the schoolyard floor, Sara gave Emily a thumb-up, telling her that she's about to fly out right now. Emily saw her friend giving her that and in return, Emily looked at Sara with a smile on her face and yelled out to her, "Roger that, Sara!", making it sounded out like that Sara is jumping out of a plane.

After getting that 'roger that, Sara!' from Emily, Sara did a few small swings to get herself ready for the big swing before actually doing it, pasting a few centimeters on Jane's turn before Sara and way past Emily's, making her the winner on the round.

Seeing what their friend made, Emily and Jane were in awe when the girls saw that and when Sara went back to the ground and ran over to her friends to see the results. "How far did I jump, guys?" asked Sara who was very proud of what she did because she never did that before in her school life, not even in Kindergarten or pre-school.

Staring at the long chalk line on the floor that was Sara, Emily looked at that for a few seconds before turning to the winner with a huge smile on her face and answered Sara's question by saying to her, "Sweetie, you did a great job on it! It was farer than me and Janie." "Are you sure about this, Em?" asked Sara who wasn't sure about this. It was a quite dangerous mission. She could get hurt by this and her father might found about this and be a little mad at her for getting herself hurt but hey, Martin was her 'coach' on her mission to fly to the sky all summer. Her with a helmet, shoulder, elbow, and knee pads.

Hearing her friend's worried tone in her voice, Emily studied Sara's brown eyes and before answering Sara's question, Emily gave her a kind smile and said to her, "Yeah that I am sure about it, Sara. Why are you asking me this?"

Looking down at her black shoes instead of her friend's face, Sara said to Emily, "I don't know, Em. I am just getting worry about this." "About making your Daddy worrying sick about you? His only daughter?" Hearing those things that Sara's worrying about her father because she doesn't want her Daddy to be alone in this world after what he had suffered through during these past few years and plus, she love him too much for him being that way. She is what people calls girls who are attaches to their fathers, a Daddy's Girl and she's proud of being that.

Knowing that Emily and Jane want an answer from her, Sara sighed to herself and looking at her worried friends' faces, she said to them, "Yeah, kind of." Hearing that, Emily whispered something into Jane's ear and watching her friends doing that, Sara don't know about what her best friends were talking about but she does know that the both of the girls were talking about her with smiles. "Guys, are you two whispering about?" asked Sara who want to know about this.

Seconds later, Emily and Jane got closer to their best friend in the entire world and gave her a giant bear hug, telling her to not be sad about this. During the hugging, Sara giggled when she got hugged by Em and Janie and asked them, "What you guys are doing to me?" Hugging the shit out of Sara Fitzgerald, Emily Roberts just told her. "Just giving you a hug, Sweetie." Also hugging her other best friend, Jane Nichols kissed Sara's cheek and responded back at the saying, "Yeah, Sara. We are just giving you a hug, telling you to not worrying about your Daddy too much. He'll be happy with or without you, especially if he would have Miss Walker with him. I think that he might be having a thing for her, whatever that means."

Before Jane can say anything more about her Daddy might be having a thing for Miss Walker, Sara interrupted her friend's words and getting out of the hug before saying to her friends, "No, he did not!"

"Did not what, Sara?" asked Jane who was a bit confused about this. "Might be….. _having a thing for Miss Walker!_" said Sara who whispered those few last words to the girls, not wanting everybody in the schoolyard to hear about this. Seconds after hearing that, Emily shook her long blonde curls out and said back to Sara, "Yes, he is, Sara. Me and Janie saw it and we thought that your Daddy might faint when he first met her and told her that dumb question. That was unlike your Daddy about that."

Knowing about that because she was there when that incident had happened and hearing what Emily was saying to her, Sara actually thought that might be true because after seeing her father calming down after Miss Walker asked him about something and then making some small talk before heading over to calling each other by their first names before heading off to do something else, her father, Martin Fitzgerald might be having a thing for Renee, Sara meant, Miss Walker. She was also wondering if the both of the adults knew about this.

Probably Miss Walker knew about this instead of her father because Miss Walker always smiles at her and calls on her about ten times before recess plus, when Sara had to sit down on the chair next to her archenemy, Liam Carson after putting her things away and founding out that there are no seats left beside the one next to Liam, Sara got so sick of Liam when he starts making fun of Sara about everything and starts hitting on her while saying some weird things to her that Miss Walker noticed that and told Liam to stop hitting on Sara and let Sara move over to where her friends are sitting at.

Plus, while Sara went over to her friends, her feelings got hurt when Liam calls her, "Sara Fitzgerald, Teacher's Pet" in a mean voice of his and now, the first thing that she want to do to Liam is something that Uncle Danny told her when she told him about this, that she get hurt by this Liam kid, make fun of him because Danny does this to Martin most of the time and it bugs Martin out when he does that. Martin just rolls his eyes when his friend gave that piece of advice to his daughter, hoping that Sara don't use it on Liam but when things will get a little rough on her, Sara had to use it anyway.

After thinking about this, the school bell just rang and knowing that the three of them had to get to their classroom to start their first day of first grade math before lunch comes along since the three girls started their reading group earlier and before getting them inside, Sara said to her two friends, "Okay, that might be true but who knows. They might have a thing for each other." and halfway running to the steps, Emily told Sara something about the future that lands on the 'they might' part, " And this just means that if your Daddy and Miss Walker get marry, you might get a new Mommy?"

That question made Sara Fitzgerald speechless for the rest of the day.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

-:-

"Martin?"

Few seconds later

"Martin?"

Suddenly, Martin is not listening to anybody and not waking up. The person who was calling his name got a frustrated from all of this and decided to take a big swing at it by saying to his friend.

"EARTH TO MARTIN FITZGERALD!"

Hearing that loud and clear, Martin got woken up from his sleep of dreaming about a few things that he can't stop wondering about and to see who was yelling at him like, he turned around on his chair and saw Danny behind his desk, staring at him with a grin on his face while teasing him.

"Oh, it looks like that the federal agent is finally awake. How was your beauty rest?"

Not knowing about a single damn word that his friend was saying to him, Martin who just realized that he had fallen asleep at work, stared at Danny oddly and asked him after doing a small yawn, "Danny, why did you do that?", referring to what Danny did to him earlier, the one when Danny was yelling at him to wake up from his nap on the sunny morning of doing some deskwork on his desk.

He watched Danny starting to sit on the desk surface and after sitting down, Danny crossed his arms and with the same grin on his face, he answered Martin's question by saying to him, "Well, I watched you napping on your chair for about twenty minutes and wanting to know if everything is okay, I came over to you, says your names a couple of times, and while you were napping, I yelled your name and there you are, well and wide awake."

Martin didn't believe that for some reasons and asked Danny another question about the same topic.

"No, Danny, really. Why did you wake me up?"

Danny took a few seconds to think about it and then, told Martin. "Because I needed to get a pen from you because my pen broke and that was my last one and since you had a new batch of pens, I decided to get one from you."

Immediately wanting to get this over with, Martin grabbed a black pen from his pens and pencils holder next to the picture frame of his daughter and put the ballpoint pen in front of Danny before saying to him, "Here your pen. I needed to get a cup of coffee." and got up from his chair to walk to the coffee station to get his coffee fix.

Danny watched his friend walking over to the coffee station and with a new batch of questions about what he saw; he decided to follow Martin to the coffee station to get his answers before heading back to the deskwork.

Once Martin poured the coffee in the paper cup, put in some sugar and cream in the brown liquid, and stirs them all together with a spoon, Martin was about to put the lid on the rim when he knew right away that Danny is right behind him, probably with more questions about Martin Fitzgerald's life.

Without turning to his friend with the many questions, Martin sighed to him and said to Danny, "Danny, what's it now?"

"Martin, who is Renee?"

Hearing that coming out of Danny's mouth, Martin put the cardboard holder over the coffee cup and after doing that, Martin left it there before turning to Danny and asked his friend, "Danny, I don't know about who are you talking about?" and blushes a light pink shade on his cheeks after saying that.

Danny saw Martin's cheeks blushing pink and said to Martin, knew that this Renee keeps Martin blushing whom means that Martin might have meet someone very interesting today but where did he meet her? Let find out.

"You know who I am talking about. The Renee that you were talking about in your sleep. The name of the woman that you said aloud to everybody to hear."

"No, I don't, Danny. I told you. I don't know who you are talking about."

"Come on, Martin. Spill it!" asked Danny whose dark brown eyes were staring at him, wanting an answer to the question about Renee Walker.

Martin Fitzgerald knew that he had to tell Danny about this and after taking a sip of his coffee, Martin put it back on the counter and said to Danny, "Okay, then. I'll tell you about who Renee is." Moments later, Martin leaned over to Danny and whispered to him so no other agents can know about this, "Renee is Sara's new first grade teacher. Renee Walker is her name."

After hearing about that, Danny was a little confused about this and asked Martin, "Is this Renee really the Miss Walker? The Miss Walker that you always thought was an old lady? Are you sure about this, Martin? Since, come on. You were talking all summer about how you are hoping that Miss Walker was a creepy old woman who doesn't sexual harasses you at Sara's school and……"

Martin interrupted Danny's soon to be long speech about the sexual harassment he received from Miss Reichs last year by whispering to him some more, "Yeah, I know that but I am pretty sure that Renee, I meant Miss Walker doesn't do that to me. We had a nice chat together about losing things at home and forgetting about that halfway through outside her classroom."

"Was that why you didn't answer my calls earlier? Because you accidentally left your phone there at your place."

Martin nodded to Danny, telling him that was true and said some more to him, "And I left Sara's lunchbox there too."

Wanting to know about how his lovely goddaughter felt about that, Danny asked Martin about how Sara felt about it, her father suddenly became a forgettable person that morning.

"Sara got a little pissed off at me about it because I think that she never saw me like that before, being that type of person but she calmed down a little when we got to her classroom a little later than we thought and met Miss Walker there a minute later."

Seconds after saying that to Danny, Martin felt his cheeks blushing some more because this is the most embarrassing thing that he ever did in front of a woman, his daughter and a bunch of first-graders in his life. Martin also felt Danny's eyes beaming at him, hearing the Latino agent's voice saying to him softly, "Martin, what had happened after that?"

Hearing that question, Martin looked at Danny and whispered to him, "When I saw Miss Walker for the first time, I got so stunned when I saw her that when she asked me if I am Sara's father, I just said to her: 'Who?'"

Danny looks like that he is about to make fun of him from the look on his friend's face when Martin told him that and knew all along that this is a bad idea to tell him about this and want to get to his paperwork right away before anything else happens to him until Danny put his hand on Martin's arm and told him something about it.

"Martin, I wasn't going to laugh at you about what had happened but I had to ask: What Renee Walker looks like?"

Seeing an image of Renee in his mind, "A few inches shorter than me, an inch or two taller than Sam or Elena, long wavy reddish-brown hair, dark blue eyes, a small and sweet nose, and the best smile that I ever saw, and she was wearing a sleeveless yellow dress."

"In other words, she looks like an angel in a yellow dress." said Danny, referring to Martin's description about the lovely and beautiful Renee Walker. In return, Martin just nodded to him, telling that the words Danny was describing to him about Renee were very true about her.

"No wonder that you ended up being like an idiot in front of her. How Sara reacted to that?"

Martin took another sip of his coffee and with the warm cup in his hands, he looked at Danny and answered the question by saying to him, "I don't know. Maybe embarrassed of what she saw and kept pressuring me to go to work or I'll be late."

"That Niña sure know what she was talking about. You were definitely late for work today. "

"I know that, Danny."

"How Renee reacted to this and are you seeing her anytime soon?" asked a smiling Danny.

Martin saw the smile on Danny and he smiled back to his friend while saying to him after walking back to his desk with his friend, "I think that she was fine with this. She had to head back to the classroom to teach the first-graders and I had to go to work and I'll see her again when I pick Sara up at school later."

"Probably with a lot of stories to tell you." said Danny who is proud of his goddaughter who he hope that Sara had beaten up that Liam kid that day since Sara heard that rumor that Liam will be in her class for first grade a month before school started for her and he gave her that advice while Martin rolled his eyes during it.

"Probably." said back by Martin who sat back on his chair after putting the cup of coffee on the desk surface, hoping that his daughter will come back with stories to tell about her first day of school. After hearing that word from his friend, Danny agreed with him and asked Martin one last question.

"Martin, I am going to the deli shop in a couple of minutes. Want me to get a sandwich or a sub for you?"

Martin smiled at him and nodded before answering Danny's food question by saying to him, "Sure, get me a sub."

"The usual?"

"The usual, Danny." The usual means an Italian style roll with stacks of turkey meat, dark green lettuce, and Provence cheese with mayo on both sides of the bread.

"Fine, then." said Danny and before he can leave his friend alone for the moment, Danny turned to Martin for a few seconds and said some more to him, "And Martin."

Martin looked up to Danny from his desk and said to him, "Yeah, Danny?"

"When you see Renee Walker again, calm down and don't do anything stupid, okay? You wouldn't want that to happen again in the same day, Martin. Just do that for the sake of yourself, Sara, Renee Walker and me. You promise?"

Martin smiled at him and answered Danny's question of wise words by saying to him, "I'm okay with that, Danny. I am promising you that."

"Good, then." said Danny and slowly, a grin was appearing on his face when he asked Martin, "And now, can you give me some money for your sub? I'm not paying for the lunch for the two of us plus Elena. Cough your money up or you will regret it."

In return and very afraid if he doesn't cough up the ten dollars up right away and Danny will do something to him if he don't, Martin dug out a ten dollar bill out of his wallet and put it on Danny's palm.

"Thanks" said a very happy Danny who had completed his mission.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**-:-  
**

When Martin got over to Sara's school a little after three in the afternoon and went inside the schoolyard to be with the other parents who are waiting for their children to come out of the red brick building, he was having a conversation with Emily's father, Ben the moment he heard the children's voices coming out of the building.

To see his daughter walking out of the building and running toward him with a big smile on her face while saying to him, "Daddy!", Martin turned to the front doors and watched the children, running out of the building and into their parents' arms or to whoever watching them for the afternoon for a few minutes until most of the children were out of the building and it surroundings and there was still no Sara.

Martin is about to start worrying about his daughter when he saw that and he want to know where she is at and to do that, he had to find out about it from Sara's friend, Emily.

Watching Ben putting his arms around Emily's body and carrying his friend's own little girl up, Martin smiled at that and turned to a smiling Emily and with the same smile on his face, Martin said to her, "Hey, Emily. I had a question to ask you."

Getting a few kisses on the forehead by her father, Emily giggled at that and with a big smile on her face, she turned to Martin and said to him, "Hi, Mr. Fitzgerald. What's it?"

"Did you know where Sara is at right now?"

Emily stares at him for a few minutes until Ben noticed this silence and said to his daughter, "Em, can you tell Mr. Fitzgerald where Sara is at right now?"

Emily stared at her father and then, to Martin who looks very worried about this and then, at this moment, Emily stared at both of the men while saying to them a little quietly, "Yes, I know where Sara is at?"

"Where?" asked Martin who got a sigh of relief when he received the first clue of finding his daughter.

"Inside the classroom with Miss Walker." answered by Emily.

Martin was surprised of that answer and asks Emily another question. "Inside with Miss Walker? Do you know why, Emily?"

Emily stared at Martin for a whole minute before saying straight to him, "No, Sir."

"Emily, can you think a little harder about this?" asked Martin who know that he was about to scare Emily for the first time since last Halloween when he accidently scared the three little girls at the horror house at the school gym of the school Halloween event but he wasn't with a flashlight in his hand during a blackout that night this time. He is trying to look for his daughter.

"I am trying to, Sir…" quietly said back by Emily.

"Please, Emily……" responded back by Martin who know that Emily Roberts can do this while his friend, Ben Roberts is starting to have a bad feeling about this.

Being a prosecutor that he is and to protect his daughter on this, Ben looked straight into Martin's eyes and with a lawyer-ish tone in his voice, he said to his friend, "Martin, can you don't do that to Emily, please? I think that you are starting to scare my daughter."

Knowing about Ben was telling him, Martin looked at Ben's dark-colored eyes and said to him with a calm tone in his voice, "I know about that, Ben. I'm very sorry about that."

Ben smiled at Martin for getting that and said to him and chuckled to the FBI agent/ the father of Sara, "I'm fine with that, Martin but you gotta said that again to Emily.", referring to the scared little blonde-haired girl in his suit-jacket covered arms.

"I'm okay with that, Ben." said Martin who seconds later, turned to the scared Emily who was resting her head on Ben's shoulder, and him with a smile on his face and a cool and calm tone in his voice, "Hey, Emily. I got something to tell you."

"Sure, Mr. Fitzgerald. What's it?" asked quietly by Emily.

"I'm very sorry that I had asked you that question harshly. I was trying to find out where Sara's at before. Can you ever forgive me?"

Both Martin and Ben stared at the little girl for an answer and right away, Emily looked at Martin with her blue-colored eyes and a slight smile was slowly appearing on her face before saying to him, "I forgiven you, Mr. Fitzgerald."

Martin smiled at Emily for getting that moment of forgive and forget and shook Emily's small hand while Ben was saying in the background to Emily, "That's my girl!" and kissed Emily on the forehead.

Martin chuckled at the moment he saw that and can't wait to do that to Sara the moment she comes out of the school which is soon, he hope and continued watching Ben and his daughter for a while until he heard Sara's voice, saying to him, "Daddy!"

He turned around and saw Sara, running toward him with her arms wide open with Renee Walker walking right behind the little girl. He smiled at his daughter; running toward him but the smile suddenly went a little bigger every step Renee was walking over to him with a smile on her face.

"Hey, Daddy!" said Sara who ran over to her father after a long day at school. In return, Martin picked his daughter up in his arms while saying to her, "Hey, Baby. How's school?"

"Fun, Daddy. Just like you told me this morning." said a smiling Sara.

Kissing Sara on the forehead, Martin smiled at her and said back to her, "I'm glad you did, Sara."

Sara Fitzgerald started cuddling in her father's arms while Renee finally came over to him with the same smile on her face, "Hi, Martin. It's nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too, Renee." said a smiling Martin.

In the background, Ben was seeing this moment between Martin and Miss Walker with Sara smacked in the middle of all of this and knew that he doesn't want to be involved in all of this and so does Emily and to say their goodbyes without a ounce of rudeness in it, Ben told the three of them the goodbye of the day.

"Well, I better get going then. Sara and Miss Walker, I'll see you girls tomorrow.

"Okay with that, Mr. Roberts." said Sara who waved her hand at Ben. "Also, okay with that, Mr. Roberts." responded back by Renee who smiled at him also.

Ben saw that and smiled at the two girls before turning over to Martin and said to him, "and Martin?"

Martin turned to him and said to him, "Yeah, Ben."

"See you at the court hearing with you and Sam, tomorrow. Okay?"

"Okay with that, Ben. Sam and I will see you tomorrow, then." said Martin.

In return, Ben nodded at Martin for that while putting Emily down on the schoolyard floor, grabbed the little girl who was saying her goodbyes loudly to Martin, Sara, and Miss Walker, Ben chuckled at that, and went out of the schoolyard together, leaving the three of them behind.

Watching Ben Roberts walking away with Emily, Renee smiled at that before turning to Martin with the same smile on her face and asked him, "And so, are you and Ben are working together?", referring to the remainder of tomorrow's court hearing Ben gave Martin and another person named Sam.

Martin chuckled at the thought of that and looking at Renee's eyes and smile; he smiled at her and answered her question by saying to her, "Not exactly, Renee."

"How exactly did you meant of that, Martin?"

It took only about thirty seconds for him to think about it before having an explanation for it and turning to a waiting Renee and said it to her with a nice and calming feeling of his in case that he ended up making a fool of himself in front of her again.

"Exactly, both Ben and I are in the FBI but Ben is an attorney for them while I work as an agent along with my co-worker, Sam…."

"Don't you meant Auntie Sam, Daddy?" asked Sara who had interrupted the two adults' conversation to make herself clear that Sam is a woman, not a man in case that Renee Walker get confused of the gender of Sam.

Martin ruffled his daughter's hair and said to her, "Yeah, I know about that. Why did you tell me that?"

In return, Sara looked up to him with a cute smile on her face and said to him, "Just want to make sure of that, Daddy."

"Oh" said Martin, who can only tell her that one single word that moment. Sara just smiled at him, knowing that she was right about that.

Watching the moment between those two, Renee studied the father and daughter before realized that Martin was staring at her with his blue eyes and gorgeous smile of his while asking her, "Renee, are you okay? Want to me to tell you more about it?"

Renee nodded to him with a sweet-looking smile on her face. Martin saw that before grinning at her, "Are you sure about that? It's a pretty long and boring story. Sara sure got bored about it when I told her about it. Right, Baby?", staring at his daughter.

Sara saw her father staring at her with that grin of his and nodded her head while saying to him with a smile on her face, "Right, Daddy." before turning to Miss Walker and with the same look on her face that she gave to Martin, Sara looked at her and said to the teacher, "Miss Walker, long story short. Daddy and his team caught the bad guy, bad guy went to jail, same guy got out of jail, now suing the FBI for his wrongful arrest, and Mr. Roberts is helping them getting out of the lawsuit by telling the judge and the jury and the news people about what the bad guy is really about."

Renee was a little shocked that how could a six years old daughter say those words without any help and very straightforward that she asked the smart girl with a smile on her face, "Sara, how did you learned that?"

In return, Sara grinned at her teacher while holding Martin's hand and answered her teacher's question by saying to her, "It was a bedtime story that my Daddy told me one night."

Renee laughed when she heard and after a minute or two of laughing, Martin chuckled at that and joked to Renee with a grin on his face, "Don't worry about it, Renee. I will make sure that Sara doesn't use my work stories for show and tell."

"I might use the most interesting ones for show and tell instead, Daddy." said Sara who got the news that she can't use all of her father's work stories for show and tell.

Martin turned to Sara and responded her statement by saying, "But with my permission, Sara."

"And my permission also, Sara. Okay with that, Sara?" said Renee who wants to make sure about this. Sara stared at the two adults and answered the question, "Okay."

The two adults smiled at that before Renee looked at the time on her watch and now realized something that she had to do that involves school. To do that, Renee looked at the two Fitzgeralds and immediately said to them, "Sorry about this but I better get back inside the building for a meeting."

"Oh, what's the meeting about?" asked a disappointed-looking Martin about this coming into an end.

Renee saw the disappointed look on the man's face and smiled at him. "About the aftermath of the first day of school between all of the teachers in the school."

"In other words, the teachers will be going to gossip about the students, picking who might be the good students and who are going to a little trouble to interact with."

Renee nodded to Martin, telling him that might be one of the things that the teacher including herself might be doing and seconds later, the student between the three of them asked Renee a question.

"Miss Walker, am I part of the good students?" Renee and Martin looked down at Sara who was staring up at them with her brown eyes and uneasy smile on her face.

"Sara, of course that you are part of the good students. Why did you ask me that?" asked Renee who showed the child a sweet smile on her face.

In return, Sara just shrugged her shoulders and said back to her teacher, "I don't know. I just wanted to know about it."

"That was good to know, Sara." said Renee before looking up to Martin who was smoothing his daughter's brown hair with his fingers, Renee asked him a question before heading back.

"Martin, I got a question to ask you." With a smile on his face, "Yeah, Renee. What's it?"

"Can I have your number?" said Renee in her southern drawl. A grin was slowly developing on his face the moment he heard that and said to her, "Sure, Renee. You can have mine if you give me yours."

A grin also slowly developing on her face the moment she heard that and said back to him, "Since when you started reading my mind?"

During the minute of giving each other their home and cell numbers plus e-mail addresses with the help of Sara's pen, Martin gave Renee his card while Renee wrote all three of the connections on Martin's palm with the pen to add a personal touch on it.

Martin was in awe when he saw the numbers and letters and symbols in black ink on his palm and knew that there's one greater thing about Renee Walker from all of the things that he learned about her so far. Renee saw Martin Fitzgerald's face goes into awe the moment she wrote down everything on his smooth palm and had to leave right away because the meeting will be starting soon in five minutes and counting down, Renee took Martin's free hand and shook it while staring at Martin's face and saying to her, "It's nice to see you soon, Martin and I will see you and Sara tomorrow."

Martin shook Renee's hand and said back to her with a nice grin on his face, "Nice to see you too, Renee and I am pretty sure that Sara and I will see you tomorrow too. Right, Sara?"

"Right, Daddy!"

Renee slightly laughed at that and said to them with a smile, "Fine with that. Bye, Martin. Bye, Sara."

"Bye, Renee. See you tomorrow." said Martin. "Bye, Miss Walker." said Sara who gave her a wave.

"Bye, guys. See you tomorrow." said Renee who waved back to Sara before turning around and walking back to the school to get to her depends on how much talk meeting before heading back to her place for the night.

Walking Miss Walker walking back into the school, Sara grabbed her father's hand again so they could get a snack together before heading back to her Daddy's workplace and there, she had realized something about him. Martin kept at Miss Walker's back and he was smiling like she never saw him before. She might saw him drooling also.

"Daddy, stop doing that please!" said Sara a little loudly, referring to the drool that Martin is developing with his saliva now and pulling his hand a little harder to make him stop doing the habit.

"Doing what, Sara?" asked Martin who doesn't understand a single word coming out of his daughter's mouth. "You are drooling like a dog!" straightforwardly said by Sara.

It took a moment for Martin to realize this before he felt himself drooling on his jaw and after wiping it off of his jaw line with his suit-covered arm, Martin looked down at Sara's now smiling face and asked her, "All better now?"

"All better now, Daddy and before you forget, you promise me something from a long time ago about going into the first grade."

"What's it, Sara?"

With a sweet smile on her small face, Sara answered her father's question by saying to him, "Daddy, you had promised me the moment the first day of first grade is over, you and I could get a snack together and if you can, I could get a nap just like Kindergarten!"

"Sara, you remembered all of that all this time?!" asked Martin who was quite surprised of all of the words that Sara just told him. In return, Sara just nodded at her father and after seeing that, Martin kissed her on the forehead before asking her with a smile on his face, "Hey, Sara. What could you want for a snack: ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, a piece of cake, my leftover sub at work…..", giving her some options for the snack of the day.

Sara giggled when she heard the options especially the leftover sub part but she wants something else from him. "No, Daddy. None of that. Actually, I want a donut. A jelly-filled one I want the most."

Martin gave her a weird look on his face and asked her, "Are you sure about that?" He is very unsure about this. Sara saw that look that her father is unsure about something and said to him, "Sure that I am sure about this, Daddy. I really want a jelly donut."

It took Martin only a minute to think about it and about where to find a shop that had pastries and coffee for him since he is having a craving for one of each at the moment before turning back to Sara and said to her, "Fine, Sara. You get a donut. I might get a cup of coffee along the way. Maybe a pastry also."

"Are you hungry, Daddy?" asked Sara. Martin nodded to his daughter. "I knew that you're and let go to the food!" said Sara who completely understood her father about food. Martin chuckled at that and together, the two of them walked out of the schoolyard and to the nearby café where all of the pastries that you could think of and the best coffee in New York were in to get their snacks and the drink for Martin.

After getting inside the café, greeted the owners who know the Fitzgeralds well, and the moment Sara got her donut and her juice while Martin had his piece of chocolate cake and cup of coffee, they walked over to a vacant round table, sat down on the comfy chairs, and while watching her father reading the newspaper after taking a bite of the donut and a sip of the juice, Sara asked him a question.

"Daddy, can I ask you a question?"

While staring at the scores at the sport section of the _Daily News_, Martin said to her, "What's it, Sara?"

"Do you love Miss Walker and I meant, really love her that you want to marry her and she will be my new Mommy?"

Hearing that strange question from his one and only daughter, Martin put the newspaper down and with a questionable look on his face and tone in his voice, Martin Fitzgerald asked Sara Fitzgerald: "What?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**-:-**

"_Do you love Miss Walker and I meant, really love her that you want to marry her and she will be my new Mommy?"_

_Hearing that strange question from his one and only daughter, Martin put the newspaper down and with a questionable look on his face and tone in his voice, Martin Fitzgerald asked Sara Fitzgerald: "What?"_

:-:

It was a bit of a shock when he heard that question from the child across the table and he was completely speechless for a few seconds, wondering why Sara asked him that question. He thought that Renee is a great woman but he only knew her for a whole day and he is in no mood for a romantic relationship right now and so, that the answer for that question will be a no but he doesn't have a clue to tell that to his daughter, who he think is a hopeless romantic from knowing her too well.

Even through that he and Sara had a great relationship with each other, they had their ups and downs with their different views for Martin with women. And being very much in love with the woman you met that day who is also your daughter's teacher is one of them.

"Daddy, is everything okay?" asked Sara who was staring at that look of his when she asks her father a random question but this is not very random, this is serious, especially for Sara who really want to know about the relationship between her father and Miss Walker. To see if this is true.

Martin was a bit confused about the question that his daughter just asked him and the moment he saw her staring at him and knew that he had to tell the truth before Sara starts bugging him with this question for the rest of his life but he doesn't have a clue what to say to her about him and Renee with the right words. This is very hard for him right now.

"Daddy, is everything okay?" asked Sara again. "You look a little pale. Daddy, are you sick?"

Martin felt a little sick when she asked him that but the bile in his mouth seems to be gone for now and knowing that Sara is becoming scared because she thinks that her father is dying in front of her, Martin looked at his worried little girl and with a calm grin appearing on his face, he began calming her down to tell her that he's not dying in front of her by saying to her, "No, Sara. I'm not sick. I was kind of well, - shocked by that question."

"Why were you shocked by that, Daddy? Did I tell you something bad?" asked a still scared Sara who was staring at him with her brown eyes.

Martin saw those brown eyes of her and said back to her, "No, Sara. You didn't tell me anything bad to me but, Sara. Why did you ask me that question?"

Sara shrugged her shoulder when she asked him this question, "I don't know, Daddy. I wanted to know if you are in love with Miss Walker or not today."

Martin took a few seconds to think about this before taking another sip of his coffee and looking up to the girl who is now, having a bit of white powder on the tip of her nose from the jelly donut, and said to her clearly and understanding, "Sara, I only know Miss Walker for about a day now and I am pretty sure that from the look of it, she and I will probably just be good friends and Sara, - "

"Yeah, Daddy?"

"If Miss Walker and I ever get to be more than that, I am promising you that you'll be the first person that I will tell that Miss Walker and I are well, you know the rest."

Not sure what her father just told her but she likes the idea of that, the cutest smile that she ever had on her face slowly appearing and after one last bite of the jelly donut, she said to Martin, "I know, Daddy. Thank you for telling me that."

"No problem with that, Sara and sweetie?" asked a smiling Martin who is happy himself because he just told her that and it looks like that things will run smoothing this time.

"Yeah?" said back by the smiling girl.

"You got a bit of powder on your nose."

Wanting to see the powder on her face, Sara put her finger on her nose and managed to wipe some of the powder off her nose with the finger before putting it down and an 'oh' came out of her mouth when she saw bits of white powder on her fingertip.

Watching her staring at the white powder on her fingertip, Martin smiled at her and said to her while doing that, "Baby, want me to wipe the rest off your nose?"

"There are more on my nose?"

Martin nodded to her and before he can wipe the rest off with a paper napkin, Sara asked him about something.

"Yes, Daddy. You can wipe the rest off my nose but with one thing."

"Yeah, Sara. What's it?"

"Can I take a bite of your slice of cake, please? You didn't take a single bite of it since you sat down and plus, it will be laying there cold." asked sweetly by Sara.

Martin chuckled when he heard that from the still hungry Sara and with a grin on his face, he answered her question by saying to her, "Sure, Sara. You can have one bite of the cake but I had to finish it up before heading back to see your Uncles and Aunties soon. Okay with that, Baby?"

Just hearing those words, Uncles and Aunties made Sara very happy that she leaned over to Martin and took a bite of the chocolate cake that was on Martin's fork into her mouth.

Very shocked about that, Martin stared at her weirdly but a grin started making another appearance on his face when he said to her, "Whoa, Sara. I was planning to give you a bite of the cake myself!"

"But you were taking too long to do that!"

"True, true." mumbled by Martin when he heard that, knowing that is very true but he didn't mumbled while finishing up the cake and drinking more coffee at the same time when Sara was drinking her juice. After finishing up the snack and drink, Martin and Sara told the owners of the café their goodbyes for the day and the moment they were outside, Martin put a giggling Sara on his shoulders and with her weight on his shoulders, they walked over to the Federal Plaza to see his team mates again.

~:~

The moment the two of them got over to the bullpen; Martin put Sara down and watched her running over to Danny with her saying as loud as she can, "Uncle Danny!"

Danny heard one of his favorite girls' voices from his desk and with a smile on his face, he turned to Sara and the moment she got over to him, Danny put his arms around her body so he can pick her up while greeting to her, "Hey, Chica. How was school?"

"It was good, Uncle Danny! I had a great day!" answered by Sara who kissed a wet one on Danny's cheek.

Sara giggled when she saw Uncle Danny's cheek blushing pinker by the moment while Danny asked her another question, "I am glad that you did, Sara and did you kick Liam's butt yet?"

"Danny!" said by Martin in the background, watching all of this, hearing the info that Sara had kicked Liam Carson's butt yet or maybe that she did that at school already. It could be a reason why Sara was late coming back to him after school ended. It probably is.

But Sara shook her head, telling the men that the answer was no and saying back to Danny with a smile on her face, "But I will do that soon, Uncle Danny. I'll make you proud!"

"That's my girl!" said Danny who gave her a hug and kissed her cheek before letting her go, watching her aiming for Martin's chair to sit on.

Watching her running over there, Martin ran behind to her to put her on the chair himself and after putting her down on the chair, Sara asked Danny about the vacant desks around her, "Uncle Danny, where are Auntie Sam and Auntie Viv?"

"Sara, Auntie Sam and Auntie Viv are out of the building for work but they'll come back before you know it." said a smiling Danny.

"What about Auntie Elena? Can we visit her before Auntie Sam and Auntie Viv comes back? Please!" asked by Sara who is giving Danny the puppy eyes.

"Unless you get your Daddy's permission, we can visit Auntie Elena too." said Danny who is hoping that Martin will let Sara go with him to see Elena again.

To get his permission, Sara turned to her father who was sitting next to her and with her brown puppy eyes fully loaded, Sara gave Martin those eyes of hers and asked him in a sweet voice, "Daddy, can you let me go with Uncle Danny so we can visit Auntie Elena, please?!"

It took Martin about a minute and a half to think about it, letting Sara make some trouble with Danny again but seconds after finishing up his thoughts, he turned to his daughter and smiled at her while saying to her, "Sure, Sara. You can go with Uncle Danny but please, don't make some trouble again with him, again. Fine with that, Baby?"

"Whatever, Daddy. Bye-bye!" said Sara who jumped out of the chair and ran over to Danny to hold her godfather's hand to head upstairs to see Elena without any serious thinking of her chosen words.

Watching his only girl walking away with another man in her life, Martin sighed to himself when he saw that and went back into some random deskwork before he could heard from twenty feet away, deep inside the hallway, "Uncle Danny, Daddy is in love with Miss Walker! He told me so!"

"Really, Sara and by the chance, is your teacher's first name is Renee?"

"Yep!"

"I knew it!"

"What do you meant by that, Uncle Danny?"

Before Danny can answer that question made by Sara and without any thinking, Martin ran off his chair and into the hallway to stop Danny and Sara from talking more about it, Martin said to them, mostly to Danny: "Danny Taylor, don't you dare do that!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

**-:-**

Watching her father walking over to her and Danny with a serious look on his face, Sara knew right away that he is very mad at someone but whom? Sara was wondering about that and seconds later, she had figured out that her father is mad at Uncle Danny but this is not Uncle Danny's fault.

He just asked her a question and being a good girl that she is, Sara answered it for him but it seems like the wrong time to do that because Martin looks very angry at Danny and wanting to defend her Godfather for what she did, Sara did that by saying to Martin.

"Daddy, Uncle Danny didn't do anything bad to you. He just asked me a question and……"

"Not now, Sara." answered quickly by Martin who is certainly hadn't heard what his daughter was asking him at all. Martin just wants to ask Danny about the words saying out of Danny's mouth thirty seconds ago.

"But, Daddy."

"Sara, again. Not now." said by Martin, being slightly annoyed about all of this from the tone of his voice.

Sara looks like that she's about to cry from hearing that unusual livid tone of Martin's and from seeing that from his goddaughter's face, Danny had to defend her right now by looking at his friend seriously in the face and said to him with a calm voice, "Martin, don't do this to Sara. She just asked me a question and I answered it for her before you came here bragging in, telling me to not stop talking about that."

Martin saw Danny giving him that look on his face, that face he saw many times in their friendship, that face when Martin did something very disappointed like this moment right now when it involves his daughter. The girl who Martin only want good and lovely moments for her to enjoy for the rest of her life. Only those moments for his Sara.

Looking at Danny and then, looking at his scared daughter who was staring at his with her dark eyes before turning back at Danny with a calm look on his face and said to him, "But, Danny. I think that question is not right for Sara to ask you that and Sara shouldn't ask me for some permission in order to ask you that."

Very confused after hearing that, Sara looked at him and asked him another question. "But Daddy, is that the same thing as a promise like the one you told me at snack time?"

Martin nodded at his daughter and with a slight grin on his face, "Yes, Sara. That's the same thing as the one I told Uncle Danny."

"So, you just told me to keep the you loving Miss Walker secret is between you and me, Daddy. Isn't that right?" asked Sara again.

Martin nodded to her again while saying to her with the same grin on his face, "Yeah, baby. Something like that and you're right about that. Only between you and me."

But at that right time, with his big mouth after he heard that from Martin and Sara, Danny looked at the two of them and asked Martin, "Wait a minute, then. Martin, you love Miss Walker, Renee Walker? Really?"

Sara giggled when she saw her father's cheeks, blushing pinker by the moment while Martin felt himself blushing in front of Danny and Sara before asking the question.

"Yes, Danny. I like Renee, okay."

Danny was making the 'tsk-tsk' sound with his voice when he knew that Martin is lying about his words and said to him, "It didn't tell me that from your face. You were blushing pinker by the moment after I asked you that question. You do really love her!" By the end of that sentence, Danny's face just went all lovey-dovey which kind of freak Martin out.

Being very freaked out from seeing that face, Martin gave him a weird face of his own and said to him, "Danny, don't do that anymore, please?"

"So, he admitted that he loves her, cute. Right, Sara? Isn't he in love with your teacher?" asked Danny who is crossing his arms while looking at Sara over his shoulder.

"Right, Uncle Danny. He is in love!" said Sara who had a big smile on her face along with her brown eyes shining at her love-stuck father.

Seeing that from Danny and now, Sara, Martin wanted this to end for today until it is the right time for this topic to come back and bite him in the ass again. To himself, he said silently, "God, kill me now!" but suddenly, Danny heard that and joked to Martin, "Martin, don't do that in front of me and your daughter. She's too young to lose her father."

"Danny, I am not that dumb to do that in front of you and Sara. It's just an expression."

"I know that, Martin. I am not that dumb either and before Sara will think that her favorite men are annoying her, you better give her a hug."

"A hug?" asked Martin who is quite confused from what he heard.

Danny looked at Martin with a weird look on his face while saying to him, "Yes, Martin. You know what is. Hug her! You'd given her one every single day!"

Martin kept staring at Danny before he realized about what the Latino man was saying to him and said right away, "Oh, Yeah." and before doing that, Martin turned to his daughter who is staring at him again and with a smile on his face, he said to her, "Hey, baby. Come here."

Doing what her father is telling her to do, Sara walked over to him and after Martin squatted down to her, Sara put her arms around his neck and at that moment, she ended giggling when Martin picked up her and gave her a hug for over a minute or two.

Seeing that sweet father-daughter moment between Martin and Sara, Danny smiled at that before he realized something. Elena is probably still waiting for him and Sara at White Collar and wondering about where those two went all this time. Not wanting to make his wife wondering about that anymore for now, Danny sadly had to end this hugging and now kissing by clearing his voice many times and saying to them over and over again, "Um, guys. You better end this love fest right now."

"But why, Uncle Danny??" said Sara who doesn't want this to end at all! She just wanted to hug her Daddy forever and for as long as she can.

"Because Sara, don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"You want to visit Auntie Elena with me, remember that?"

Sara didn't have a clue about those words coming out of her godfather's mouth until she finally realized it. "Oh, God. Auntie Elena will be sad at us for not visiting her! I don't want her to be sad. Let go! Let go! And Daddy?"

"Yes, Sara?" asked Martin who realized that he had just hug his daughter way too much that day.

"Can you put me down so I can make Auntie Elena happy?"asked a smiling Sara.

Martin thought about this for a few seconds before kissing her on the forehead and saying to her before putting her down on the tile floor, "Sure, Sara. Have fun with Danny and Elena, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy!" said Sara before kissing her father on the cheek and getting her feet on the ground. Martin watched his girl running over to Danny, putting her hand into Danny's hand, and the moment it was time to go, Sara looked over to him and gave her a small wave of her hand before walking away from him.

Martin waved at her also and the moment they were gone, Martin walked back to his desk and when he sat down on his chair to do some desk work, Martin saw Renee's handwriting on the palm of his hand and smiled at himself and thinking that the moment is right, he might be in love with Renee Walker but when?


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

-:-

A few minutes after Danny and Sara came back from visiting Elena in White Collar, Sam and Vivian came back and noticing Renee's handwriting on Martin's palm when he was picking Sara up and putting her on the desk surface to sit, Sam pointed her finger at it and asked him, "Martin, what's that on your hand?"

Ignoring that question from Sam about Renee's info, Martin just answered her question while trying to make himself look busy, "Nothing, Sam. It's just nothing."

"Nothing, Martin? It looks like something." said Viv who joins Sam into the questioning about the handwriting that Martin is trying too hard to hide because he doesn't want to talk about it in front of the ladies. It's very personal for him and he doesn't want this to be into a gossip topic.

Knowing that he is absolutely ignoring the heck of Sam and Viv and doesn't want the girls to think that he is becoming a total ass that afternoon, Martin sighed to himself and looking up to Sam and Viv who are sitting on their chairs while Sara is making her next move which is running over to Viv to sit on her lap for a while before changing her mind again.

While Sara was sitting with comfort on Viv's lap and is staring at her father with her eyes, Martin looked at the three women and said to them, "Yes, guys. It's something and I don't want to talk about it."

Hearing that, Sam asked him another question, "Is that something a good or bad thing?"

"Mostly a good thing. Why?"

Sam shrugged her shoulder while saying to him and smiling, "I just want to know, I guessed."

"You guessed?" asked Martin, who raised one of his eyebrows, being in shocked a bit.

Seeing that raised light brown eyebrow of his, Sam nodded to him while saying to him, "Yeah. It doesn't matter where that handwriting on your palm came from; I think that it's a good thing whatever it came from. You know what I meant by that?"

"I know what you meant by that, Sam. You want me to be happy no matter what with no matter whom, starting with the person who wrote on my palm. Right?"

"Right again, Martin but can you tell me who wrote on your palm?" asked a smiling Sam.

Doesn't want his cover for liking Renee yet and giving Sara that 'don't tell' look with his eyes in order to keep her mouth shut from being a blabbermouth, Sara ended up being a sweet angel on Viv's lap while shaking his head and answered Sam's question by saying to her, "Not yet for that, Sam but I can tell you that a woman wrote on my palm earlier today. Right, Sara?"

"Right, Daddy!" said a still smiling Sara who is holding Viv's hand.

"Good girl!" said Martin and wanting to change the subject this time, Martin looks at Viv and asked her if she and Sam got anything at the free medical clinic.

"Good news, Sam and I got something from there." said Viv, who is still holding Sara's hand with her own hand.

"Is anybody there saw her in the past few days?" asked Danny, referring to the missing person, Laura Van Horn, a twenty-something homeless woman whose regular hangouts are St. Joseph Catholic Church and the General Hope Medical Clinic because she is HIV – Positive and had regular checkups there.

Viv shook her head no and answered the question by saying to him, "There comes the bad news. She hadn't been seen there for the past three weeks, sorry."

"God, she could be very sick out there, not being seen there for three past weeks." said Danny who is pulling a bit of a worried look on his face.

From sitting on Auntie Viv's lap, Sara saw that and thinking that her godfather could be sad, she looks at him with her chocolate brown eyes while asking him with a worried tone in her voice, "Uncle Danny, are you okay?"

Pulling a strong look on his face, Danny looks at her and said to the girl, "Yeah, Sara. I'm fine and don't worry about me….."

Interrupted Danny's sentence, Sara shook her head while saying to him with a sweet smile on his face, "No, you not. You need a hug!"

Martin, Sam and Viv laughed when Danny raised his hands and said to the little hugger with a serious tone in his voice, "No, Sara. Please give me a hug!" But it's too late….

Sara got off to Viv's lap and ran over to Danny's before giving his two legs a big hug while saying to him with a sweet and calm voice, "Don't be sad, Uncle Danny Taylor."

Martin, Sam and Viv laughed at that again while Danny is giving them an evil look on his face before he realized that his goddaughter, Sara Fitzgerald is such a sweet and kind little girl who likes to give the people she love hugs.

Because of that, Danny leaned down and kissed her on the top of the head while saying to her, "Do me a flavor, Sara. Just make sure that you'll confuse your Daddy later, okay?"

~:~

Later that day, at night, both Martin and Sara were at their home, doing their own things to do for tomorrow on the sofa. Reading the case again and again while writing notes on the legal pad for the court hearing with Ben and Sam tomorrow for Martin and for Sara, reading one of her new picture books she got from the public library with her father while cuddling up with the same guy with a blanket over them.

The both of them were into their work until it is time to do something or at least one of them.

Martin was writing down some notes on the pad when he notices that Sara is staring at him. Thinking that she might be finished with her new book or that she wants him to read the same book to her which she likes to do to him many times since they know each other, Martin looks over to her and with a grin on his face, he asked her, "Hey, baby. Are you done with the book?"

"Yes." said Sara.

Putting the other part of the question into it, Martin asked her again, "Want me to read it to you this time?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"asked Martin who really want to know about this.

"No."

"Are you sure, again?"

"No"

This is keep confusing Martin Fitzgerald a whole lot and after doing some deep thinking about this, Martin knew right away what it is all about.

Staring at the girl's eyes with his blue eyes seriously, Martin asked her the question about this. "Sara, did Uncle Danny told you to do this to me?"

"Kinda"

"Kinda?" asked Martin who is still confused.

Sara just nodded her head. Martin saw that and after sighing to himself, he put the written notepad and pen on the oak wooden coffee table in front of them next to the cup of coffee before looking straight into Sara's eyes and asking her, "Sara, what are you asking me to do?"

This took Sara a few seconds to think about and the moment she is done thinking, Sara stared straight into her father's eyes, just like the one Martin is doing to her, and answered his question by saying straightforward to him, "I want you to call Miss Walker tonight."

Surprised of what he heard, Martin just stared at her and asked her a one word question, "What?"

Sara kept her stare and reaching over to the cordless phone who is sitting on the end table next to the couch before handing it over to him with the same tone in her small voice, "Call her!"

Looking at the phone and then, to Sara, Martin said to her with a quick, "No!"

Along with that, Sara said to her father again, "Why can't you call her? Did you have her number?"

"No, Sara. I don't have her number around me so stop doing this to me, okay?"

"Yes, you do have her number so call her, Daddy!"

"No, Sara and I think that this is time for bed!" said Martin who is getting tired of this game and want this to end for the night and probably soon after that.

"It's not time for bed. It's too early to do that and don't you dare lie to me?! You still have her number." said Sara who is certainly doesn't want this to end at all. She just wants this to happen. Tonight.

"Sara Elizabeth, I don't have her number with me rig….."

Sara is pulling the most serious look on her face that Martin had ever saw which made Sara do her part of the argument. "Daddy, you do have her number. You even use one of those long yellow rubber gloves to wear just to get the pizza out of the oven and to wash the dishes. That was pretty weird."

"Yeah, I know, Sara." said Martin who certainly remembered doing that. That was pretty weird to him deemed.

Watching her father right now, Sara put her hand on her father's shoulder while holding the phone out to him before saying to him, "I know, Daddy. Please call her so I can help you out with something."

"Help me out with what?" asked a grinned faced Martin.

"I can pick out a tie for you for your court thingy tomorrow." said a smiling Sara.

"You meant for my court hearing tomorrow, Sara?"said Martin who is helping Sara out with this for her chosen words.

Sara nodded to him and said back to him, "That's what I meant and can I do that while you call Miss Walker, please?"

This time, Martin took a minute to think about this before kissing Sara's forehead a few times and hugging her before letting her go while saying to her, "Sure, baby. You will do that for me while I will do yours. Okay?"

"Okay, Daddy. I'll." said Sara who kissed her father on the cheek before jumping off the couch and headed off to her father's room to figure out what ties for him to wear out of his collection while Martin sighed to himself again, looks down at Renee's number and dialed the number on the buttons of the phone, hopefully that Renee will answer his call.

About thirty seconds later, a female voice answered the call, "Hello."

Trying to stay calm about this because this is not Martin's idea, Martin asked the caller, "Hi, is this Renee Walker?"

"Yeah, who is this?"

"_Oh, God. Did Renee had forgotten who I am or that was Renee being kind about this? Martin, don't you dare freak out about this! Man, just don't do that!" _"Hi, this is Martin Fitzgerald, Sara's father."

"Oh, Martin. Hi and how are you?"

"_Thank God! Thank God! Thank God!" _"I'm fine right now, just doing some work for the court hearing tomorrow. What about you?"

"Well, I am just grading some science worksheets and I was done with your daughter. I can tell one thing that Sara's one smart girl!"

"How smart?" asked Martin.

"Very smart, Martin. She got everything right on the worksheet, even the tough ones and by the way, how's Sara?"

Thinking about the smart girl who will probably have Mensa running for it money anytime soon, Martin smiled and said to Renee, "She's doing well actually. She's being my personal stylist right now, asking me if she could pick out some ties for me tomorrow."

"I had a question about that, Martin. Can I ask you that, please?"

"Shoot!"

"Well, did Sara dress you up this morning? You look very handsome if Sara did that to you."

"Well, not really actually."

"Martin? I am serious about this." asked Renee.

"Well, she kind of dress me up this morning." explained by Martin. After that, Martin could hear some laughter from Renee over the phone and didn't know that a smile is appearing on his face.

"Funny, huh?"

"Yeah, very funny and Martin, I am sorry to end this because I think that my roommate is coming home any minute now and if she saw me talking to you over the phone, she will bug me with a thousand questions and so, can I see you tomorrow at school, okay with that, Martin?"

Slightly disappointed about this because he wanted to talk to Renee about anything for the rest of the night but he knows that he couldn't do that at all, Martin decided to shove that feeling away in a closet and right away, he said to her, "Yeah, I'm fine with that, Renee. See you tomorrow at school."

"Good and just make sure that you'll bring your handsome ass with Sara, okay?"

"I'll do that. Good night, Renee."

"Glad to hear that, Martin. Have a good night, yourself. Bye." and right away, the call is disconnected and putting the phone back into its stand, Martin sighed to himself again and smiled to himself, knowing that he did a good thing. Letting Sara bullying him into calling Renee and with the results of that, he think that calling Renee and talking to her about things sure made pressure off of him and that made him happy and proud of himself for doing that.

But right away, Martin is having a bad feeling about a room in his home, thinking that Sara is pulling a twister with his many ties being swayed all over the place in his bedroom. To see if she doesn't do that, Martin got his butt off the couch and ran over to his room, just to make sure of that.

~:~

The moment she put the cordless phone back into its stand, Renee sighed to herself when she is finishing up grading the papers while taking another sip of the bottle of diet coke, knowing that Martin would call her that night and ended up having a nice time talking to him about things for a few minutes before it ends.

All during that meeting at school and through the rest of the day, Renee couldn't stop thinking about him, Martin. Those kind blue eyes of his. The boyish grin of his when he smiles. The way his short sandy brown looks a little messed up in the afternoon. The softness-roughness surface of his hand when she wrote her info on the palm of it. The sound of his voice. The way he knows how to wear a fine-damn suit. Those soft-looking lips of his. The way he is such a sweet father to his also as sweet daughter, Sara.

From thinking about him, Renee didn't know that a smile is appearing on her face for a couple of minutes that her roommate, Andrea came into the small apartment and arriving from her evening yoga class, notices that smile on Renee's face and greeted her friend and roommate.

"Hey, Renee. How's your day?"

Renee stopped her thinking about Martin because she just heard Andrea's voice and looked up before she saw the blonde, standing a few feet away from her in her yoga outfit of a comfy hoodie and yoga pants, her hair in a loose ponytail with a smile on her face.

Renee smiled at Andrea and answered the greeting by saying to her, "Hey, Dre. It was a good day. How about you?"

"Work was tough today but the yoga class kinda made the day." said Andrea.

"Kinda? What do you means by 'kinda'?" asked Renee who is a bit confused about that because as far as she knows Andrea Parker, Dre is well, a health nut and a yoga fanatic which is the far opposite of Renee Walker, a meat-lover and a runner on most days but the ladies had managed to be great friends and roommates.

Grabbing her bottle of mineral water from the fridge, Andrea went back to the living room with it and opening the cap off and taking a sip of the water, she sat down on the arm chair on the right of the couch and said to Renee with a straight smile on her face, "The class was very fun as usual because we are learning a new move and halfway through the class, my on-vibrated cell phone had rung too many times and after the teacher decided to kicked me out, I looked at the cell phone and you can't believe about who just called me?"

"Who?" asked Renee, who suddenly want to know about this because her brain is starting to give her a headache from grading the papers too fast.

Renee also know that the news is bad because Andrea is giving her that look when bad news is coming on its way to them and after saying to her friend, "Dre. Who was it?"

At that moment, Andrea looked up to Renee with her brown eyes and answered the question with a flat tone in her voice, "It was Thomas."

Very surprised of what she heard that name, Renee raised one of her eyebrows and slurred out to her, "Thomas? Thomas had called you? Did you know why he called you?"

Seeing that raised eyebrow and the slurred words, Andrea looked at the shocked Renee and said to her with a calm voice, "I don't know, Rene. Out of all of the calls, they were very short and many hang-ups and since I don't date guys at all, I am pretty sure that Thomas is looking for you."

"What? How did he have your number? He doesn't know you at all. He doesn't even know that I am in New York! How did he….."

Renee is very confused about this. About Thomas Andrew Nyland knowing about her being in New York. Again, this is very confusing.

Seeing Renee being very confused about it and sitting on the couch all alone with a small beaded pillow holding against her chest, Andrea knew right away that she had to comfort her and by doing that, Dre got up and sat next to Rene and the moment she put her hand on the confused woman's shoulder, Dre whispers into Renee's ear and said to her with a sweet and calm voice, "Renee, don't think about this too much, okay? He doesn't deserve you at all because he doesn't care about you after what had happened to the both of you guys. He is just being an ass about you leaving him."

"But he was so smart and sweet and generous back then and…."

"No, Renee! Don't even think about him as that? The past is the past and here in New York is your future and as we are in the topic of New York, did you meet anybody cute today beside little kids?"

Certainly, she did met someone cute along with sweet and smart that day. Martin Fitzgerald.

A smile is appearing on her face when she answered Andrea's question by saying to him, "Well, I did met that someone today."

"Who's it, sweetie?"

Renee turns to Andrea with the same smile on her face and answered the question with the words: "He's actually one of my students' father. His name is Martin Fitzgerald."

"Martin Fitzgerald? I like that name and did he had beaten up that Thomas guy in the looks department?"

"Yeah, he is. Martin got these amazing blue eyes and nice smile as well."

"People with amazing blue eyes and a killer smile? Seem like my type of people."

"Shut up! You are _so not_ his type!" said Renee, who playfully thrown the pillow at Andrea. In return, Andrea protected herself from the pillow with her arms and joked to the thrower, "Yeah, I am _everybody_'s type of woman and how did you know what type of women he likes?"

"I don't know about that. He's pretty nice to me and a few minutes ago, he called me on the phone and we had a nice talk for about a few minutes before he went back to his daughter's caring. So far, he's such a great guy."

"I know that he is, sweetie and will you see him tomorrow, I hope?"

Renee nodded to Andrea and said to her with a smile on her face, "Of course that I'll see him tomorrow. He's the father of one of my students and I told him that to bring his fine ass tomorrow as well."

"Fine ass? You didn't mention that this Martin has a fine ass earlier? You naughty girl!"

"Oh shut up!" joked by Renee who threw the pillow again at Andrea but ended up missing a few inches instead.

"Haha! You missed me and hand me the remote, please? I gotta watch my shows I tiVoed last night!" said Andrea who as well as health nut and yoga fanatic, she is well as a reality TV shows freak.

"Glad to do that, ma'am." said a news show and some good-ass sitcoms type of person named Renee who handed the remote to Andrea and while Andrea is watching those trashy shows from VH1 on the TV, Renee headed back to her room to get some things in order to have a warm and spa-like bath.

While enjoying her bath with a great book in her hands, Renee relaxes in the tub and thought about what had happened earlier. She knows that she got to get rid of Thomas out of her mind and put in some thoughts about Martin instead but even through that she told some things about Martin, she don't think that she is fully love him or not because of her past with Thomas.

Hopefully those thoughts about Thomas and Charleston, South Carolina will be gone and new thoughts about Martin and New York will take its place in her mind, heart, and soul.

**-:-**

**Author's Note: Expect a new title for the story when the next chapter comes along.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: New title, new summary, new chapter, seriously thinking about doing the same thing to my one and only Criminal Minds fanfic and you know the drill.**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

**-:-**

The next two weeks were just the same but even better between Martin and Renee. Every morning, when Martin drops Sara off at school, he and Renee had a nice talk together for a few minutes before heading off to their jobs and they did the same thing after school, when Martin picks up Sara and again, he and Renee had another talk together, mostly about good things before heading back to wherever they had to go to. Martin always like having these talks with Renee because they seems to always made his days, especially from a beautiful, intelligent adult who always has something interesting to say to him who isn't a six years old girl.

But when it is getting better every time, Martin always notices that their talks were about the same things but he likes Renee and doesn't know what it is about these types of talks but for some reason, Martin want something more than this, he want to have a better friendship with Renee Walker but how?

One morning and after they ate their breakfast, Martin was about to put the wrapped-up turkey sandwich he made for Sara into her lunchbox when he notices something about his daughter. He watches the little girl walking over to the front of the fridge while standing on her toes and opened the door of the fridge by pulling the handle. He watches her curiously with his eyes when she is digging through the drawers at the bottom of the fridge for a few minutes until he heard the words, "Found it!" and right in front of him while being in Sara's hand is a red delicious apple.

Quite confused of what he saw because he is thinking that the apple is going to be her snack along with the sandwich but Martin already put in her snack which is a small bag of chocolate chips cookies, her favorite, Martin greeted the girl with the apple in her hand again with a grin on his face, "Hey, Sara. You want to put the apple in your lunchbox?"

Right away, the answer from Sara isn't what he expected in return. "No, Daddy. I am pretty sure that I can hold it in my hand until I give it to Miss Walker." said Sara with a smile on her face. Martin studied that smile and knew right away what Sara is planning to do with the apple. He did the same thing when he was around Sara's age every time he had a great and nice teacher. It was a classic.

"Sara, are you giving the apple to Miss Walker because she is a great teacher to you?" asked Martin. Sara nodded to him while saying to him with a wide grin on her face, "Yeah, I am giving it to Miss Walker because I think that she is a great teacher. Everybody think that she is a great teacher too, especially you, Daddy."

"Especially me? Why did you think of that?" asked Martin who shut off the lunchbox before looking at Sara with one raised eye-brow. Again, Sara nodded to him and said to him while holding the apple, "Because you always had a smile on your face when you talk to her and I saw her checking out your butt every time we leave together. I think that she really like your butt and you didn't notice it."

Surprised that Sara is talking about Renee liking his butt; especially from the child's mouth who calls it the 'b-word', Martin felt his cheeks blushing pink which made Sara giggling like crazy which sent Martin grinning while putting his arms around her and picking her up in his arms. Once they are face to face to each other, Martin kissed Sara's forehead before saying to her with a calm tone in his voice, "Hey, Sara. Do you think that Miss Walker will like your apple?"

Sara giggled some more while being in his arms and answered her father's question back, "Yeah, Daddy. I think that she will like it too. Do you think the same?"

"Yes, Sara. I do think the same thing as you. I know that she'll like it too." said Martin. "Really, Daddy because I don't know about it since I might be the first kid to give it to her this year and I am not sure either." asked Sara who from the worried tone in her voice, she might be having some second thoughts about this.

Not wanting his daughter to have those second thoughts about this because he thinks that giving an apple to Renee is a great idea and it seems good for Sara since the girl always is a generous person about these things and that Sara likes Renee as much as he is, Martin looked at Sara's also worried face and with a kind grin on his face, he said softly to her, "Baby, I had something very important to tell you about this."

With the same worried look on her face, Sara gave him that look while asking him, "What's it?" Holding Sara in his arms, Martin smiled at her while saying to her, "Sara, I think that you will do a great job giving the apple away to Miss Walker and from knowing her, I think that she'll like it as well because she always like you and think that you are a smart and generous girl and one of the best students in her class this year."

Hearing all of those nice thoughts that Miss Walker thinks about her, there was no worried tone in her voice and no matching look on her face because when seconds went by, a smile appears on her face along with a sweet tone in her voice, Sara asked him, "Really, Daddy? Do you think so?"

Along with one last kiss on the forehead, Martin told her those words. "Yes, Sara. I really think so."

After hugging her for as long as possible, Martin knew right away that the two of them will be late for school and the moment he told Sara that they had to go right away, Sara answered the question by saying, "Okay, Daddy but we better get your phone and my lunch box because you do remember last time we were late. Remember?"

Referring that to the 'first day incident', Martin smiled at the girl who certainly remembered that and said to her, "I remembered that, Sara. Thanks for reminding me of that." "No problem, Daddy but let go to school right now before it's too late."

Listening to her, Martin handed Sara the lunchbox for her to carry while he grabbed the cell phone off the kitchen counter and after they grabbed their things for the day and locked the door, the both of them headed off to the school to see Renee Walker.

~:~

At recess, Sara was playing a game with Emily and Jane and having fun with her two friends just like every time at recess. Sara had so far a very good start at school. When she and her Daddy got to school, Sara gave the apple to Miss Walker and say something very nice to her that Miss Walker had a nice smile on her face than usual and gave the child a small hug for thanking her for the apple because this is the first time that a child ever given her more this year.

Sara is so happy when she heard the news that she ran back to her father, told him the words Miss Walker told her with a wide smile on her face and in return, Martin told her that was great before giving her a small hug and kiss and talking to Miss Walker for a while before waving good-bye and heading off to work. Sara didn't notices him leaving but she sure notices Miss Walker staring at her father a bit weirdly but Sara doesn't care about that. She is just so plain happy that Miss Walker like her gift.

While playing with Emily and Jane, someone else is not proud of Sara giving the gift to Miss Walker. Wanting to give her a piece of his mind, he walks over to the three girls and started making fun of them which sent small Jane into tears because most of the stuff were about her since she is born very small at her birth. Having to defend her friend because those were not so nice words about Jane, one of her best friends, Sara quickly walks over to the boy, yelled at him, and before she knows it, Sara Fitzgerald threw the first punch of her school career at the boy, watching him falling down with blood almost coming out of his nose.

~:~

Martin was talking to someone over the phone about the recent missing person when he got the call. Hearing the ringtone of his iPhone that can hear from people who he doesn't recognize, Martin asked the person on the other end of the line, "Can you get back to me in a few minutes, please? Because someone else is calling right now. Sure, thanks. Call you soon. Thanks." and put the phone back into its stand on the desk so Martin could take the call on his cell phone.

After answering the call, Martin heard what the person on the other end of the line is talking about and a minute later, Martin just told the person, "Sure, I understand that. That is very wrong of Sara doing that to him. I'll be there in fifteen minutes and I will talk to her about this when I get there. Bye."

The moment he put the cell phone, the word 'shit' came out of his mouth, loud enough for Danny to hear that. Wanting to know why Martin just said out loud the word, 'shit', Danny turned to his friend and asked him, "Martin, is there anything wrong?"

Martin sighed to himself and answered the question by saying to him with a serious tone in his voice, "That was Sara's principal. He just told me that Sara had beaten a boy up at school."


	12. Chapter 12

"_Martin, is there anything wrong?"_

_Martin sighed to himself and answered the question by saying to him with a serious tone in his voice, "That was Sara's principal. He just told me that Sara had beaten a boy up at school."_

~:~

**Chapter Twelve**

**-:-**

Danny just stares at him with his brown eyes for a few seconds before asking him, "Martin, serious?"

Martin just nodded to Danny and answered the question, "Yeah, Danny. Sara got herself into trouble for beating a boy up."

" Are you wondering about which boy Sara had beaten up or did her principal told you that already or why she did that?" asked Danny again who is wondering about this because this act she did was totally not her thing at all.

Not having any answers for them at the moment but will find out once he get to the school, Martin stood up from his chair while saying to Danny with a serious look on his face, "I don't know who the victim is or why she did that but Principal Shutt just told me to come to the school so he and me and the boy's parent will figure out what to do with the children."

"Think that Sara might have finally beaten that Liam kid up today?" asked Danny who is having a smile on his face for no particularly reason.

Surprised of what he heard because he had never think that Sara might have beaten up Liam, Martin just stares at Danny while saying to him with a quick, "You think what?"

Hearing that, Danny just shrugs one of his shoulders and explained to Martin, "Come on, man. Why do you think which kid is getting on Sara's nerves recently and made her want to pull a Rocky Balboa on the kid? Liam. It seems like the only reason to do so."

"Yeah, but why?"asked Martin who is simply confused about this. He felt like that he doesn't know his own daughter these past couple of weeks. He shouldn't know that this is going to happen to her.

Seeing his friend being confused about this and wanting to help him out, Danny took a few seconds to walk over to him until he's inches away from Martin and the moment he got Martin's eyes up from the floor and into those brown irises, Danny told him what to do about this.

"Martin, maybe she had to do it for one of her friends being teased by Liam or that she just wanted to do so to make it end but from knowing Sara and you being her father, this isn't your fault, simple as it is. It just happens."

"I know that, Danny but I am kind of……"

"Shocked that Sara got herself into trouble that what you know of?"asked a grinning Danny. Martin just stares at Danny and asked him straightforwardly, "Was there something between you and my daughter that I didn't know of?"

The grin is keep disappearing from Danny's face the moment Martin asked him that and seconds later, Danny ended up answering the question, "Maybe. I might have given her a few tips on how to beat someone up."

"Danny!" seriously said by Martin who can't believe of what he heard. Since when Sara stopped coming to him for some help on these issues and goes to Danny instead? He doesn't have an answer for that right now because he is going to be late for the meeting if he keeps this up.

To do so, Martin is about to grab his suit jacket off of his chair and asked Danny for one favor. "I will take care of that later because I got to go to Sara's school for the meeting and I am becoming late for it right now so you can cover for me until I come back probably with the troublemaker."

Gladly to do so, Danny just nodded his head and said to him with a smile on his face, "Sure, Martin. I'll do that but say hi to the troublemaker for me and tell her that her Uncle Danny is proud of her."

Martin ended up giving Danny an eye-roll and said to the Latino man while putting on his jacket and putting his cell phone away in his pockets, "Yeah, whatever. I'll do one of those for you. See you later, Danny."

And then, he left.

~:~

When Martin got to the school and the moment he walked inside the school office, he noticed that Sara is sitting on one of the benches in front of the secretaries' desks, looking so innocent in her school uniform and her hair into French braid pigtails. Martin still had no idea why this angel ended up committing a sin an hour earlier while being like that. Maybe that he'll find out about that in a few minutes once Shutt opens his door to let him in.

Noticing that Sara is now staring at him with a big smile on her face, thinking that everything will going to be okay, Martin ended up giving her a 'I'm very serious about this, Sara. Don't pull your innocence on me!' look on his face.

Seeing that look on her father's face, Sara didn't smiled that much for a while and now staring at the top of her black shoes the moment Martin sat down next to the child and asked her quietly and mostly to himself, "Oh, Sara. Why did you do that?"

"I don't know, Daddy but I had to do it." answered sadly and quietly by Sara, thinking that her father is very disappointing of her, of what she did. Martin notices that and holding his hand with her small hand, Martin studied the child with his eyes and asked her, "Did Liam hurt you or Emily or Jane at recess?"

"He didn't hurt me or Emily but he did hurt Jane."

"Do you know why he hurt Jane, Sara?"asked Martin.

This time, Sara looks up to her father with her brown and right away, she answered the question by saying to him, "I think that because Jane was very born very small and because of it, she is a small child, a bit smaller than me."

Hearing that Liam might hurt Jane because she is born premature which made Sara mad about this since she cares about Jane beside everybody else and did what she did, Martin looks at Sara and with a kind smile on his face, he said to her.

"Sara, I think that what you did is a good thing because you want to protect Jane's feelings but this is very wrong also because you didn't think of your actions right away and ended up doing what you did to Liam earlier. Understand of what I am saying, Sara?"

With her chocolate brown eyes staring at him, Sara just looks at him while saying to him, "Daddy, are you telling me not to beat Liam or any boy up and do something else about this to protect the people I love like my friends or you or anybody else?"

Martin nodded to Sara and said to her, "Yeah, Sara. I am telling you to do that instead of doing the tips that Uncle Danny gave you and…."

"What tips that Uncle Danny gave me?" asked Sara who is slightly confused about that.

Figuring out that Danny is a pretty good liar for telling him that or that Sara is that type of person who keeps people's promises at any cost, Martin just let that one slide and instead of that, Martin put his arm around Sara's shoulders while saying to her, "Never mind and promise me, Sara that you'll never beat up another kid again and try to talk it out with them instead because that's the only way to do so. Fine with that, Sara?"

It took Sara about twenty seconds to think so before saying to him with a smile on her face, "Okay, Daddy. I will promise you that. Are you happy now?"

Martin slightly chuckled at that while giving her a grin on his face and saying to her about that, "I'm happy about that, Baby. Thanks for asking that." and kissed her on the forehead. In return, Sara put his arm around her body and smiled for a minute that Renee Walker walked through the door to the hallway and went literally in awe when she saw that.

"I am guessing that everything had gone well." asked Renee who is staring at both Martin and Sara with a soft smile on her face. Martin saw that smile and with a smile of his own that he is unknown of, he told the teacher the news. "Not quite, Renee. I didn't get to talk to Shutt yet about what had happened but why are you here?"

"Shutt told me to come here also during my lunch break to get the facts straight about Sara and Liam's interactions with each other just in case." answered by Renee who just sat down next to Sara to rest her feet.

The moment she sat down on the bench, Renee also told Martin that in case that he is wondering, Liam is going to be fine. "How fine?" asked Martin. "With the school nurse fixing his broken nose for now, he's going to be okay for now but for Sara, I am not that sure."

Holding his daughter's hand right now, Martin thought about this and quickly asked Renee about this while staring at the eyes of the woman. "Thinking that Sara might get some sort of punishment for beating up Liam?"

"Not sure about that but maybe, Martin." answered and nodded by Renee who is not sure about this either.

The adults were quiet for about a few minutes while a secretary is typing up something on her computer and another secretary is talking to someone over the phone while taking sips of her drink. Watching the two adults, Sara notices the quietness around her and told them about what she felt about this. "I didn't mean to hurt Liam. Am I going to get punished for it?" From the tone of her voice, she really wants to know about this.

Seconds after hearing that, Martin sighs to himself while putting his arm around Sara's shoulder and answered the question, "I know that you didn't meant to hurt Liam but I am pretty sure that you might get some sort of punishment for your act at recess."

"Like what?"

"I don't really know......"

Moments later, a deep male voice interrupted Martin' response. "Mr. Fitzgerald and Miss Walker?"

Martin and Renee looks up and in front of them, is a tall, middle-aged older man in his forties with short curly graying hair and in a suit, otherwise known as Principal William Shutt.

Seeing him there, Martin stood up from his seat and greeted Shutt with a handshake, "Principal Shutt, thanks for calling me to come here."

"It's a pleasure to do so, Mr. Fitzgerald. Would you and Miss Walker follow me to my office to talk about the incident with Liam Carson's mother, please?" said Shutt who shook Martin's hand firmly before nodding to Renee who nodded back to the principal.

"Gladly to do so, sir." said Martin. Watching Renee walking behind Shutt to the office, Martin turns to Sara who is still sitting on the bench, staring at him with her brown eyes. Seeing her staring at him, Martin whispered to her, "Sara, stay there and keep yourself busy, okay?"

"Okay." whispered back by Sara with a small smile on her face. Martin saw that and gave her a smile of his own before heading over to Shutt's office to have a talk with Shutt, Renee, and Liam's mother about what had happened while Sara is keeping herself busy with whatever she has there.

~:~

The moment Martin got inside Shutt's office after closing the door, Shutt is sitting on his chair behind the large cherry oak desk and in front of the desk were two leather chairs, and one of them has a strawberry-blonde haired woman sitting on it, staring at him with a slightly disappointed look on her face.

Thinking that the woman could be Liam's mother who is slightly mad about this because of reasons about the incident, Martin decided to not stare at her for a few seconds before heading off to sit on the chair which Renee is holding it hostage for him by standing behind it. Martin gave Renee a quick grin for thanks before sitting down on it. In return, Renee smiles at him while the woman next to him seems to be doing some eye-rolling, probably of the quick smile between him and Renee. In order to stop the eye-rolling of the rude woman, Shutt cleared his voice and greeted all of the three of them, "I am guessing that all of you know why we are here….."

"Yes because of that man's rude daughter." said the strawberry-blonde woman who just interrupted Shutt's greeting and now finger-pointing at Martin for not raising Sara right.

Seeing that woman's finger pointing at him, Martin is starting to straight this all out by looking at her and with a curious tone in his voice, Martin asked her, "There shouldn't be any finger-pointing at anyone because you just called my daughter rude and from my first impression of you, it seems like that Liam got most of your rudeness."

"Excuse me about this because who are you by the way that my son is rude because of me?" asked the woman who looks quite mad about this. In return, Martin took his hand out and answered the question by saying to her, "FBI Special Agent Martin Fitzgerald and my daughter, Sara is usually the good child in this mess and your son's bullying her for years and so…."

"So what? That my son got my rudeness from me, use it on your daughter, and now that she got sick of it and the role-playing had been turned around and she gave my son a broken nose instead!" interrupted again by the overreacted Liam's mother.

"Ma'm. Your son didn't have a broken nose! Blood ended up coming out of his nose from Sara beating him up and now he is being treated by the school nurse and he is going to be fine." said Renee who is trying to bring some sense into the mother.

"But Miss Walker, did you saw the little girl who hurt my son? She may look innocent but I can tell that she is a fighter who may get herself into trouble again, especially from what she had experienced years ago."

Very furious about that, Martin nearly got out of his chair when he heard that and begin to bring some sense to the woman about what he heard. "Ma'm, you don't know anything about my daughter from what you heard! Sara is always and will be a good child and even through that she had been in foster care for years before I adopted her as my child, she never been a troublemaker in her whole life! So just stop overreacting about this!"

For the first time since he met her, the woman become very quiet for a few minutes that Shutt continued saying the woman's name, "Camille? Did you have something to say about this?"

Camille Carson just turns to Shutt while turning pinker by the moment and said straight out to him, "No, Principal Shutt. I didn't have something else to say about this and I am very sorry about this too."

Shutt shook his head instead and said to Camille, "Camille, please don't say that to me here. Say it to Martin and Renee instead."

"Okay, then." said Camille. She turns over to a calm-down Martin and Renee and immediately said to them with a calm tone in her voice, "I'm very sorry about what I did to the both of you. I ended up noticing that I should think of my actions first before doing them and I am not usually not a rude person at all and Martin, I am pretty sure that your daughter is a sweet girl and I would never call her 'rude' if I ever get to know her. Did you two forgive me?"before taking her hand out to shake.

It took only a few seconds for Martin to think about before smiling to Camille and saying to her while shaking Camille's hand, "I have forgiven you, Camille and I am very sorry about what I said to you also."

"I'm fine with that, Martin. Thanks." said Camille. "No problem with that." said Martin in return, glad that part is over with. After seeing Renee getting her apology from Camille and accepting it with a smile on her face, Martin studied Shutt's face and before he knew it, it is time to figure out what to do with Sara and Liam if the both of them are in the same room.

After twenty minutes of the four of them figuring out if keeping Sara with Renee and sending Liam off to another teacher or having Renee keeping a close eye on the children at all time to thinking that suspending Sara for the rest of the week could help Liam out with his recovery of torture. Martin didn't quite agreed about this type of punishment at all because he might couldn't find someone to watch Sara for him if he could but he had been out thrown by Renee, Shutt, and Camille. Oh, well then.

The moment he was done with the meeting and with Camille leaving to see her son in the nurse's office while Shutt has another meeting in ten minutes, Martin and Renee are with a patient Sara, telling her what had happened and what will happen to her.

"So, I couldn't go to school for the rest of the week and you are telling me that I couldn't watch any TV and have any dessert for it too." said Sara who is very patient but quite sad about this. Her father just took away her three favorite things for the rest of the week. Boo!

"Yes, Sara. None of those things for the rest of the week and I had to bring you back to work with me since the punishment starts today so you have to eat your lunch with me minus the cookies since those are dessert and had to stay with me at all times. Understand that?"

"Yes, Daddy and can we go now?"said Sara who completely understood what her father just told her and now, in a hurry to go to work with him.

"Not now, Sara. In a few minutes from now, we can go." said Martin and before he can think or that Sara can say a word to him about it, Martin looks at Renee who is talking to one of the secretaries about something school-related and from that moment, Martin asked her if she want to have lunch with him soon.


	13. Chapter 13

"_Not now, Sara. In a few minutes from now, we can go." said Martin and before he can think or that Sara can say a word to him about it, Martin looks at Renee who is talking to one of the secretaries about something school-related and from that moment, Martin asked her if she want to have lunch with him soon._

~:~

**Chapter Thirteen**

**-:-**

"Martin, you what?" asked Renee who is very surprised about the words that came from Martin's mouth and now completely speechless.

Martin doesn't have a clue about the words he said to her that made her speechless. At first, he was just talking to Sara about her punishment for beating Liam up and was about to go back to work with the child in hand and before he knew it, he changed the last of his words, walked over to Renee, and asked her out. What the hell is wrong with him lately? What made him do this?

"Uh, I just want to know if you want to have lunch with me later since you ended up missing yours earlier?" asked Martin whose cheeks is about to turn pink.

"Martin, I…."said Renee who is now confused about this. She doesn't know what to say about this.

Thinking that Renee is about to reject his offer of having lunch with him, he had to figure this out without confusing the woman some more or even worse, embarrassing his daughter for doing this in front of her. He could imagining Sara lightly smacking her hand onto her forehead while thinking to herself, "Why, Daddy? Why?" because of that.

Imagining her doing that right now, Martin quickly turns around to see her but Sara wasn't doing that act at the moment. Sara is just sitting down on the bench with hands on her knees of the skirt, staring at him with her eyes and looking calm as possible.

"_Oh, thank God!" _ thought by Martin while in the background, Renee is asking him because she had the answer to Martin's question. "Martin?"

Quickly, Martin turned around and slapping a smile on his face, he said to her, "Yes, Renee."

With a sweet smile on her face, Renee said to the kind man, "Martin, I would love to have lunch with you too. When will it be?"

"I don't know. Maybe later this week or this weekend. What do you thought about that?"

He watches Renee put an index finger to her child and about thirty seconds of doing of what he thinks that it's her 'thinking' face, Martin just smiles at her when Renee saw him staring at her with that smile of him before saying to him with a smile of her own, "I am not sure about this since this is a last-minute thought of yours but I will give you a call about it later when I get to figure out my schedule for this week."

"So, it might be soon?"

"Yeah, it might be soon." said the still smiling Renee.

Martin smiles at Renee because he is proud of the news he received from the beautiful woman and before he can say anything, there is interruptions in the background; all of it is coming from the now impatient girl.

"Daddy, can we leave now?!"

Hearing Sara's very impatient tone in her voice, Martin turns to the child again while hearing some light giggles of Renee's, he gave her the look on his face and answered the question, "In a minute, Sara."

"But, Daddy! You will be late for work because Uncle Danny can't cover for you that long and you know the last time that didn't work out!"

There were more light giggles from Renee and knowing that time from long ago, Martin just said to her, "I know that, Sara. After I talk to Miss Walker a little more, we can go back to my work."

"Promise?" asked Sara who want to make sure about this.

"I promise you that, Honey. Okay with that?"

Doing nothing beside smiling at him some more and giving him a nod, Martin smiles back at her before heading back to Renee who still had that smile on her face while saying to her, "Aw! That's so cute."

With a sly smile, "What's so cute?"

Being very innocent about this, "Ooh, I don't know that. You and Sara just have great chemistry together and that's one of the cutest things I ever saw."

Liking the words that Renee just told him about him and Sara having great chemistry together, Martin gave one of the last few smiles before he finally leaves and said to her with his hand out to shake, "Thanks, Renee. Talk to you soon about that lunch date, okay?"

Shaking the man's hand, "No problem, Martin. I'm fine with it. See you later."

Martin gave Renee one last smile and a nod before with Sara who is carrying her lunch box and knapsack on her back since she know what will happen to her beforehand, they left the office and headed off to go back to the Federal Plaza for Martin's job.

Watching Martin walking away, Renee crossed her arms while thinking about what just happened to her in the last five minutes. She doesn't know that this will help her or not to keep the past from getting into her new life but from knowing Martin now, it could be a great idea because he is a great man who cares about the people around him, including her and in return, she like that as well and right now, how she will find the time for that lunch date before her lunch for her students ends? She will find out about this soon.

~:~

After they left the school, Sara is about to be a pain in the ass when she asked Martin if she could use the toilets because she had to do so. Knowing that the café nearby had some restrooms but right away, they had to go straight back to work, Martin said to her, "Fine, then." and ended up managing to go in and leave in under five minutes while making sure that Sara don't get anything there at all which she almost did.

But halfway through the walk, Sara is claiming that her feet are tired and want to sit down. Now having a bit of a pain of an ass for a daughter, Martin sighed to himself and begins to pick up the tired girl up and walked down the stairs to the subway that leads to the Federal Plaza, making them a little late than usual.

The moment they were swiped in, got through the gates, waited for the train for a few minutes before getting into the crowded subway, Martin founded some empty space of the metal booth and the second he put Sara down and then, himself down, Sara asked him another question.

"Daddy, can I asked you a question?"

Being very tired of this and now rubbing his temples with his fingers, "What's it, Sara? And it better not be another restroom break!"

"No, Daddy. It wasn't about that."

Martin turns to Sara and asked her a question, "Beside that, what's it, then?"

"Who will watch me when I don't go to school this week since we didn't have a talk about it?"

Hearing that, Martin agreed with Sara about that. Who will watch Sara for him while Sara is now suspended from school? Milliseconds later, Martin thought of the perfect person for the job? His cousin, Jamie who is now bed rest because she's now very pregnant with her second child and from as far as he knows, Jamie can still move around the house and Sara could be her little helper or something like that when Ava is at school. It sounds like a great plan.

"Sara, Cousin Jamie will watch you for Daddy for the rest of the week."

"But Daddy, isn't she like very pregnant? Like 'getting ready to pop it out' pregnant?"

Having no clue where she got that term from, probably from her father when he gets some news about Jamie's pregnancy recently, Martin looks at his daughter and answered the question, "Yes, Sara. Cousin Jamie is very pregnant but from as far as I know, she can still move around the house and you could be her little helper when Ron or Ava is not around. Sounds cool, uh?"

Right now, Sara seems fine about it but seconds later, she didn't seems that fine about it once it sinks it and said to him, "That sounds cool, I think and please tell Cousin Jamie that I will come over to help when you call her."

Martin gave her a small and tight hug for telling him that and saying to her, "I'll." and thirty seconds before they get to their stop, something came out mumbling out of Sara's mouth.

"You get to hang out with Miss Walker while I had to watch a baby coming out of Cousin Jamie. Great." and believe it or not, Martin chuckled at her for that the moment when the doors of the subway are wide open and people who are getting out of that stop are now beginning to get up and walk out to go to the places that needed them.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

**-:-**

It was a Saturday morning when this happens after a long and hard week that Martin had. Beside that Sara had been suspended for a week and got sent to Jamie for her punishment since Martin had to go to work, work had been hard as well for him.

The recent missing person had been founded dead after getting into an unexpected drug bust and got into the line of the fire in an abandon street alley before he and the team could find her. She was only eleven years old who wasn't been surrounded the people she loved when this happens and the moment Martin bent down and saw young Marie Geller with two bullet wounds on her abdomen underneath a pool of dark blood, he could only think of one person at the moment that he doesn't want this to happen to that person: his daughter, Sara.

He doesn't want this to happen to his daughter at all after seeing the remains of Marie Geller. He doesn't see her lying down with bullet wounds anywhere on her body while blood would be spilling out of it corpse if Sara ever get herself into trouble but still, Martin knew right away that if he keep thinking about this, he will get nightmares about this that wouldn't go away and he had to get himself home to be with his daughter to make it go away, no matter what.

Hearing Danny's voice in the background, asking him if there's anything that he could do for him. It was kind of like that Danny was reading his mind when that happened and to do the right thing, Martin turns to Danny who is standing right in front of him with a worried look on the Latino agent's face and straight out answered the question, "Yeah, Danny. I want to go home."

In return and knowing that Martin is tired of this since Martin can be a bit stressful with cases that involves children and his friend having a child of his own as well, Danny agreed with him on that and once the both of them were out of the dark and gloomy alley and over the yellow crime scene tape, Danny gave a nod to Jack, telling him that someone is going home seconds before hailing a cab for Martin.

Once the taxi came over and Danny opened the door before putting Martin in and closing it, Martin told the taxi driver his home address and getting the okay from the dark-colored man with a very deep voice, Martin thanked him for it and during the drive home, Martin looked out to the streets of New York and knowing that he had to spend the whole weekend with Sara, just to make sure that she know that someone love her so much that he could do anything for her, one of the reasons for it to keep her safe from all of the bad things in the world even if she doesn't want to do so or not but she had to because he love her for the rest of his life.

The moment the taxi got in front of his building, Martin paid the driver the ten dollars and got out of the taxi and into the building which he took his time slowly to get to his floor and into the dark apartment. After talking to Roger Toland who is watching Sara for him for the night and letting his uncle goes back to Long Island, Martin knew right away that he want to see his daughter before heading off to bed himself because she is the only reason why Martin can do his job, telling him that in bad situations, there always be some good effects in there but in this case, it came right after the situation ended but still.

To do so, Martin quietly walks over to Sara's room, opened the door a bit and saw her, sleeping peacefully and calmly with one of her teddy bears under her arms with the covers over her and the bear.

Martin doesn't know how long that he was watching her but when Sara was about to make her first move in her sleep, Martin quickly smiled at her and closed the door. Knowing that seeing her will help him fall asleep better that night, he smiled at the thought of it that Sara will help him out with this and after taking a shower and putting on his sleeping clothes, he got himself into bed and instead of sleeping right away, it did the opposite. Martin Fitzgerald couldn't sleep at all that night.

~:~

Martin was so tired from staying up late that night that he wanted to catch an hour or two of sleep before Sara could come in to wake him up and telling him to get his butt out of the bed so they can start the weekend together. Martin tries to catch some 'zzz' about fifteen minutes in when he heard the door knob being turning around to be open and knowing right away that his daughter is coming in to disturb him from his sleep.

He moaned at that because he doesn't want this to happen to him right now and threw himself under the brown covers so he can pretend that he's deep in his sleep and sent Sara right away from his bedroom for an hour or two but that didn't happened at all.

Seconds later, he heard the doorknob being open, some soft footsteps before the door being shut closed and about ten seconds of hearing some more soft footsteps until she's about inches from his side of the bed, there was a soft and calm, "Daddy! Wake Up!"

Martin pretended that he didn't heard that and trying to 'sleep' some more but Sara didn't believed that and said to him, "Daddy! Wake up because I know that you are awake!"

Under the covers, "Sara, I am not awake and please leave the room and come back in an hour or two so I can catch some sleep because I didn't get any in the past couple of hours."

"No can do, Daddy!" She absolutely didn't listen to her father that time.

Doesn't understand the words she was saying to him about not letting him sleep, Martin got himself out of the covers and at that moment, he founded Sara next to him in her pajamas with her favorite teddy bear in her arms. After seeing that, Martin looks up to Sara's beautiful face and saw those brown eyes of hers, that sweet smile of hers while her wavy light brown mane was doing a bed head before asking the wide awake child, "Sara, why did you can say?"

Being very, very innocently about this, "Because…."

"Because of what?" asked Martin.

"Because I want you to bring me to the playground right away."

"Is this a little too early to go to the playground right now? What time it is, Sara?" asked Martin who doesn't completely understood the words that Sara was telling him. Something about the time right now and isn't it a little too early to go to the playground anyway. The both of them usually go there in the afternoon, not this early.

He watches Sara staring at the alarm clock on his bedside table before turning to him with that smile on her face and answered the questions, "No, it's not. It's never too early to go to the playground and plus, it's ten in the morning right now and so, can we go?"

"_Ten in the morning?"_ thought by Martin when he heard the time and to see if this is true or not, Martin turns around on his bed to see the alarm clock and there it is: 10:04 am.

"_Shit!"_ thought by Martin again when he saw the digits. This is far more late than usual on the weekend and why Sara still in her pajamas at this time? He got to ask her that.

When he turned around and asked her that, all that he could get from her is that: "Because I was just waiting for you to wake up and didn't know that I am in my pjs when I came here to do so." She's still doing her innocent act while doing this.

After hearing that, Martin just stared at her for a minute before Sara noticed him staring and giving her that look on his face before asking him again, "And so, Daddy. Can we go to the playground when you are ready to do so?"

Now wide awake but not completely to do and it would be a while, Martin leans over to Sara and kissed her on the forehead and then, both of her cheeks while Sara was giving him some light giggles.

"So, is that a yes?"

Martin smiled at her and answered the question by saying to her, "Yeah, Sara. That's a yes and we can go there in an hour when you and I are ready to go there." Right there, Sara leans over to her loving father and gave him a huge bear hug and this time, Martin chuckled at that and ended up asking Sara, "Honey, why did you did that?"

With a big smile on her face and before she can go back to her room to get herself ready for the outing, Sara answered the question, "Because you are the best Daddy in the world and I love you because of it."

Martin smiled at her again for giving him that compliment and said to her, "Aww! That's nice of you, Sara. Thank you!"

"No problem with that, Daddy! See you later!" said a smiling Sara who hugged her father again before leaving the room and letting Martin know that in bad situations like getting awake by your daughter at ten in the morning because she want to go to the playground right away, there are some good effects in it like seeing the sweetness of the child and Martin thinking that this will be a good start on their weekend together.

~:~

Martin sat down on a nearby bench with a 'hopefully can keep him from falling asleep' cup of coffee in his hands and took a large sip of the hot coffee before studying the environment he is in: the small playground smacked between the apartment and Sara's school.

After watching Sara sliding down the slide multiple times with her friends and talking to the friends' parents for a few minutes, he was a bit surprised of whom he saw. She's there. A few feet east of him. Walking toward him with the smile that Martin like about her. Renee Walker is walking toward him while carrying a baby carrier toward him.

Martin gulped when he saw her with probably a baby in the carrier and wondering if the baby is her or her roommate or someone else instead. He doesn't know why he gulped the moment he saw her or the reason why but he is beginning to calm the moment he heard the flat but warm accent in Renee's voice, greeting him, "Hey, Martin. Mind if I can sit down next to you?"

For some odd reason, he can sense that Sara's now looking at him weirdly again but when he did a quick look and founded out that she is still playing with her friends, Martin sighed to himself again until he heard Renee's voice, asking him with a smile on her face, "Martin, were you thinking that Sara was looking at you weirdly every time that you had to me?" It was still like that she was reading his mind again. What the heck is wrong with him lately?

He had been like this since Monday and no wondering why that he ended up canceling that lunch date with Renee the day they supposed to have it. He was thinking that he might have ruined Renee's day back then but Renee's still here for him and not minding what had happened between them. There is still another chance to do so and he want to do that at that moment.

Looking up to Renee with a smile on his face, Martin greeted back to her by saying to her, "Hey, Renee and sure, you can sit down next to me.", and made some room for Renee.

Still seeing the same smile on her face, Renee accepted it and sat down next to him before rolling the carriage between her and Martin and enough to see the baby who made Martin relaxed a little because the baby doesn't look like Renee at all. The baby is black.

Studying at the sleeping baby with his eyes and eventually asking it, "Hey, sweetie. What's your name?", he heard Renee doing a slight giggle and doing the job for the child, she answered Martin's question by saying, "Her name's Lily Grace and if you are wondering about whom she belongs to, I'm sorry, Martin but this isn't my child so you can calm down a bit."

Martin turns to Renee who is still smiling to him and Lily Grace and with a boyish grin on his face, Martin answered the question, "I know that the moment I saw her but I am still wondering who this baby belongs to. Who's it?"

Watching Renee smiling at Lily Grace and then, to Martin, she answered the question, "I'm watching her for a neighbor of mine and Andrea, my roommate and Lily Grace had been a sweetie since this morning."

"That's very sweet." said a smiling Martin. "Yeah, she is" said an also smiling Renee. They continued doing that until they heard a noise from down below them. Lily Grace is waking up before their eyes and acting very fussy.

Seeing her acting like that and before asking Renee if he can hold her and calm down the fussiness, Martin leaned over to the carriage, picking up a pink-clothed Lily Grace carefully and the moment he put her toward him, rested the baby's head on his shoulder and calming her down by patting down softly on the back of the body while saying softly to her, "Hey, Lily Grace. There's no worry to be fussing about. Everything's going to okay."

After a minute of that, Lily Grace eventually got calmed down by Martin's soft and sweet voice and while Martin keep holding her some more against him, he can see Renee going into awe in front of him. "Martin, are you a natural father with Sara when she was a baby?"

This had made Martin stopped for a second or two and think about this. Renee doesn't know yet that he adopted Sara from spending more time in foster care about a month before Sara's fifth birthday and only knows a few things about Sara's past that would describe the experiment after birth a hard thing to do and to do this, Martin had to tell her the truth without screwing it up.

"Actually, Renee. I didn't have Sara until about over a year and a half ago."

In return, Renee just gave him a weird look on her face and said to him while being confused about this, "Martin, I don't know understand who you are saying to me. Are….." referring to if Martin did something that would be wrong for any reasons.

Seeing that look on Renee's face and her tone in her voice, Martin put Lily Grace down in her carriage so he can answer Renee's question with a calm and smoothing matter. "Renee, I am not saying that I had abandoned Sara when she was a baby or everything like that."

But at that moment, Martin is seeing that Renee looks a little uncomfortable around him when he told her that and about to get Lily Grace and go somewhere, Martin quickly got himself and said to Renee who is standing next to Lily Grace's carriage with a slightly serious tone in his voice, "Look, Renee. It's a pretty long and challenging story to tell you right now."

"How long and challenging is the story, Martin?" asked Renee who is giving her own version of a serious look to Martin while putting her hand on the handle of the light purple and light grey baby carriage which actually made Martin Fitzgerald quite nervous about this.

Martin know that he can't be that nervous about this and if he keep doing that, Renee will think that he might be an ass and wouldn't let him be her friend. Martin certainly doesn't want that to happen at all and to don't let that happen, Martin walked over to her and once he's inches away from her, he begins his plan to make the nervousness go away which also gave him a surprise of his own.

"Renee, the story is like a soap opera or something like that but everything went back to fine after that and it really changed my life but if you still think of me as that, I'm not type of that man. I love my daughter to death and I always care about her and I swear that I would never leave her no matter what and I wouldn't what to do without Sara and……"

"Martin, can please shut up about it?!"

After hearing that, Martin thought that Renee had finally reached her breaking point but she didn't. Right there in front of him, Renee walked over to him until she is inches away from Martin's face and with a smile on her face and the dark blue eyes were staring at his own eyes, she said to the right now confused as hell Martin, "Martin, I know that you're not that type of person way before you told me all of that speech of yours and I also know that you love your daughter very much and a bit and well, overprotected of her own being."

This sends Martin laughing, knowing that he being very overprotected of Sara and said to Renee with a grin on his face, "What are you telling me about this, Renee?"

Still with the sweet and same as always smile on her face, Renee answered Martin's question, "Martin, I really want to hear about your story of a pretty long and challenging story of getting Sara and I am wondering that you'll like to tell me about it over lunch or something."

This is nothing that Martin expected right now and ended up asking Renee seconds later, "Are you asking me out on a date?"

In return, Renee just nodded and looking for some last-minute support, Martin looks over to Sara at the playground and saw her smiling and being happy with her friends, telling her father to do it. Accept Renee Walker's request for a date and go ahead and to be very nervous about it after it.

Martin laughed to himself when he thought of that, thinking of those chosen words Sara might tell him if she is there with him and knowing that Renee is waiting for an answer, Martin just looks at Renee's beautiful face and with enough confident to make him and his daughter proud, "Renee, I would like to go out with you as much as you do but….."

"But what, Martin?" asked a curious Renee.

With the same grin on his face, Martin answered Renee's question by saying to her, "Would you like it to be a lunch or a dinner tomorrow?"

This took Renee only a second or two to think about this before she can tell Martin, "I'll be busy tomorrow afternoon but I would love to have dinner if that is okay with you."

Glad that Renee just gave him a whole afternoon of nervousness and Sara would be trying hard to calm him down, Martin unexpected ended up kissing Renee on her right cheek and seeing her blushing a light pink on the cheek he just kissed her on, Martin just gave her a grin and said to the blushing woman, "Dinner is fine with me, Renee. What time you want me to come over?"


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

**-:-**

The next day, Martin is trying to get his daughter's opinion on something very important that involves the date he is having with Renee. So far, she ended up disagreeing with him on the certain things every single time. Normally, she love doing these situations and always has an honest thought about it but on this day, this _important _day for Martin, Sara just gave him some blank looks on her face when he shows Sara a single flower which goes into Renee's bouquet that he will be giving her later that day.

"No, Daddy!" said Sara, who given him another thumb down when Martin shows her a red rose in the flower shop. With the red rose in his hand, Martin really want a honest opinion on why Sara suddenly hates every single flower in the shop, either good or bad that Martin want to know why from the daughter who ended up blabbering to Danny and Elena at church that her father, Martin Fitzgerald got a date with Renee Walker in _front_ of everyone.

Remember how embarrassing was that, how bright pink his cheeks went, that weird grin that Danny gave him the moment Sara got herself quiet down, and wishing that he could put Sara in Sunday school until she get old enough that she shouldn't tell everybody about her father's personal life, Martin had to do one thing to get the child to agree with him on something that involves on certain parts of the date. To do so, Martin put the rose back into the bucket of red roses, wiped the remaining from the rose on his pants, and looking down at the girl who had been giving him some trouble since this morning, Martin smiled at her and asked her with a calm tone in his voice, "Sara, why you told me that? Did you like the rose or not?"

Seconds later, Martin got only about two sentences from her about this and it's not sounded good. "I don't know, Daddy but I do know that roses suck!!"

Disagreeing with that and thinking that roses are a fine choice for a bouquet of flowers on a first date, Martin asked Sara another question, "Sara, why did you think that roses are that kind of that? I think that roses are a fine choice for a first date."

"No, they are not." said Sara who is crossing her denim jacket-covered arms and giving him that 'my opinion on it is better than yours' look on her usually sweet face. The moment he saw that face, Martin sighed to himself and to hear her one and only opinion on this, Martin told her to come over to him which she did and when she came over to him, Martin looked at Sara's face who isn't doing the look of hers from earlier and with a serious look on his face, he asked Sara another question about her opinion on the rose.

"Sara, do you think that roses are not a good choice for Miss Walker's bouquet?" and right away, she told him the truth about roses. "Because I think that red roses are very over-rated and if you give Miss Walker those, she will think that you want something more for the relationship right away and she might don't want for it and will eventually don't want to see you again and……" Seeing that Sara is about to break down in front of him in the slightly crowded flower shop and with tears almost in her brown eyes, "You will be all sad again just like last time you had more of a personal life that there is more than you being my Daddy and I don't want that to happen again!"

Seeing salty tears coming down from his sweet and loving daughter's eyes, Martin want to tell Sara that he will never do to her when the same thing had happened to him when he was seeing Kim and to do so, Martin put his arms around a crying Sara and with Sara resting her head on his shoulder, leaving tear drops on his brown jacket, he rocked her for a while and saying to her with a soft voice of his, "Sara, I will never do that to you ever again. I learned my lessons about that months ago and I am planning not to do the same thing to Miss Walker anytime soon because I really like her like you are, honey and I know that I ended up hurting people's feelings there as well and again, I will promise you, honey that I will be that dumb man you thought that I was and…."

Suddenly, Martin heard something from his daughter who was talking through the shoulder of his jacket, "But you were never was that dumb, Daddy. You are always be my smart Daddy and before I can talk some more, I want to tell you about something."

"What's it, Sara?" asked Martin who is glad that Sara thinks that he is always be her smart father and wondering about what Sara want to tell him. Hopefully about the flowers.

Right away, Sara did that by looking at him while wiping her tears away with her jacket sleeve before saying to him with a thin but sweet smile of hers, "If you want to give Miss Walker some flowers, I think that she would like some daisies or lilies because I like those as well and I think that she'll like those too or if you want to give her roses, white or yellow would be nice as well because I still think that red is kind of weird."

After hearing that from her, Martin smiled and laughed lightly at that while giving her a hug and said to her, "I think that she would like some daisies or lilies as well and do you want to find some for me, Sara?"

Seeing a now happy grin of hers, Sara just nodded her head and immediately said to her father, "Okay, Daddy! And I saw some of them at the front of the shop. Can we see them?", referring to the white and yellow lilies that Martin saw as well.

Martin gave her another light laugh and said to her with a grin on his face, "Sure, honey. Show me them!" After saying that to her, Sara quickly grabbed her father and leaded to him a fresh batch of lilies where a bouquet is waiting for them to be picked up.

~:~

When Martin arrives at Renee's apartment in a bouquet of yellow and white lilies in hand from the help from Sara, he always knew where the apartment Renee and her roommate Andrea lives but never actually been there. The brick six-stories building is only few blocks away from his place and it's in a great neighborhood, full of great stores and restaurants to go to and amazing people to meet and be friends with as well and it's also where Martin is going to take Renee to for dinner, a great little hole in a wall restaurant and bar.

Since Renee doesn't know that much about the places in New York, she suggested that Martin should pick the place for the date the night before when they talked on the phone. When Martin told her about that restaurant with the best spicy Buffalo wings that isn't a sports bar, he always remembers that look of hers when she said those words to him: "I heard of that place. It's a great place but I never been there but I do love spicy Buffalo wings."

That suddenly sounded sexy to Martin's ears. A woman who love food and Buffalo wings as much as Martin is talking to him about it until it ended seconds later with Martin saying to her very much like a nervous teenager, "I love those too. Want to go there?" and before Sara came over to him, asking him to read her a bedside story with a picture book in her hands. Before Martin can tell either of the females anything, he heard Renee laughing in the background and telling him: "I could love to go there with you. See you there, Martin. Bye." and hung up on him before he can tell her anything more.

Remembering that the moment he got to the door of '5C', Martin immediately told himself to not make a fool of himself and be a good and kind person to Renee and the people who comes over to them at dinner as possible or if you don't do any of the above, Renee will think that he's an ass and will think very differently about him then.

When Martin knocks on the door, Martin is on his way to becoming a nervous wreck as over again, thinking that Renee is coming to the door and see him like that but it didn't happened like that. Seconds later, Martin watches the door being wide open and in front of him, it was a woman around 5'5 with long honey-blonde hair, big light blue eyes, wearing a matching sweater and black pants and right there, she greeted him with a slightly questionable tone in her voice, "So, you might be Martin Fitzgerald, the man Renee was talking to me about a lot recently."

He felt the woman's irises looking at him head to toe slowly, from his face to his light-blue button-down shirt with two of the top buttons unbuttoned over a caramel-colored sport-jacket to his favorite jeans to all the way to his brown leather shoes, studying him like a piece of fruit at the grocery store. Looking at him like that he's a good fruit or a rotten one, basing on his looks. Plus, he is starting to worry that this woman in front of him will start to touch and squeeze him to see he's ripe enough which made Martin well, gulps his Adam's apple.

He watches a kind smile appearing on the woman's face when he did that before hearing her saying to him, "Don't worry about me wanting to do some sexual harassment to you, Martin. Renee's my friend and I let her do it to you instead. Come on in." and stepped aside to make some room for Martin to come inside the apartment.

Still holding the bouquet of lilies tightly in his hands in case that Renee's friend might break her promise right away, Martin gave her a scared but still kind smile while saying to her, "Thank you." and walked inside the small and cozy studio apartment.

"No problem with that, Martin." said back by the blonde woman who closed the door behind them and now, about a foot away from him, Martin watches the woman looking at him with the same smile on her face before he can hear the next few words from her: "Martin, please seat down on the couch with me. Renee is getting ready in her room and will come here soon when she finishes up and ready to go out with you."

Hearing that from the woman's mouth, and seeing that she uses a father-like tone in her voice in it, making it sounds like that Martin is a rowdily teenager who only want to use Renee for sexual acts and that the woman in front of him is about to give him a harsh talk that will scare him away but she didn't do that to him. He knew that she is only playing with him the moment he went all nervous about it and giving him the same kind smile from moments ago, she sat down on the comfy suede rust-colored couch before saying again to him, "Don't worry about it, Martin. I will not bite you."

The moment he heard that, Martin ended up calming down a bit and seconds later, he sat down next to the woman and thanked her again for the second time in three minutes. After saying that to her and still calming down by the second, Martin smiled at the woman next to her and giving a proper greeting than the one he gave her before when they first met, "So, you might be Andrea, Renee's roommate and friend."

"Yes, I am that person and I think that Rene might have told you some nice words about me and what did she told you and by the way, please calls me Dre." said Andrea seconds after hearing Martin's greeting. Hearing Andrea's nickname, Martin looks at her while saying, "Well, Dre. Renee told her that you knew her since college and were roommates all four years there and now also being roommates as well years later when Renee moved up from Charleston for a teaching job for first grade at my daughter's school and you offered your place to stay at and you let her in."

"Good and what's else, Martin?" asked Andrea. With a grin, Martin continued the questioning by saying to Andrea, "And that you work as an investment banker but hate your job and want to do something else but couldn't do that right now. You're also a health nut and like to do yoga and lastly, Renee told me that you don't date men at all but you can be sometimes rough around the edges when it comes to the people you love and cares about and the new strangers in their lives but can be fine with that afterward. How's that, Dre?"

Hoping that Andrea wouldn't be that type of person who just want to kick his butt right now, Martin went a bit quiet about it to see how Andrea will react to it but when he saw Andrea smiling with her smile and blue eyes, Martin sighed to himself when Andrea answered the question by saying, "Very good, Martin. Very good and I like you already. Do you want something to drink right now? It could be a while for Renee to get ready in this rate."

Accepting the offer of a drink and also liking Andrea as well as she like him, Martin smiled at Andrea again and said to her, "Sure, Dre. I like you as well and a glass of water is fine with me." In return, Andrea smiled at him and got herself up to get her and Martin glasses of iced water in the kitchen, leaving Martin behind, being very proud of himself so far of not being a full nervous wreck about it.

Five minutes later of talking to Andrea about things she wanted to learn about him, Martin Fitzgerald and so far, Martin told her about his daughter, his job as a FBI agent, his friends, and a couple of other things as well. Martin smiled at Andrea one more time who laughed about the things that Sara did to him sometimes which can be really funny and almost got choked by her water. After helping Andrea not getting choked by the water by patting her on the back gently, he could hear the woman he is going on a date with that night's voice, saying to him, "She always does that when she laughs."

Done patting on Andrea's back and hearing a not water-filled 'thank you so much, Martin' from the woman who needed his help, Martin told Andrea that he had no problem before he turns to Renee who looks more beautiful than ever in a white and light blue striped blouse, blue boot cut jeans, and tan flats on her feet. She also wore her reddish-brown hair down with a few more curls in than usual, her face is make-up free with the exception of mascara and tinted lip balm is on those lips of her which is part of her smile he is seeing right now. That wonderful smile of her and there, being there, ready to go out and having Buffalo wings with him.

"Wow!" said Martin who got up from his seat with the lilies in his hand and smiled at her while using only one-word adjectives. After hearing that from him, Renee looks at him and with a smile of her own, she said back to him, "Hi, Martin. You look great as well." and studying the lilies in Martin's hand, Renee smiled at him again and asked him, "Martin, are those lilies for me? And don't tell me, Sara chosen them for me."

Nodding to her, Martin said to her with a grin, "Yeah, they are for you and yes, Sara chosen them but I paid for them." and reached his hand over to her to give them to her. Seeing the white and yellow lilies in front of her, Renee is in awe when she saw then and thanked him for them by saying, "They are very beautiful and I love lilies. Thank you so much, Martin."

Letting Renee holding the lilies for a while, Martin gave her those while saying to her, "No problem and Sara love lilies as well and think that the flowers are perfect for you." Hearing that Sara thought of that, Renee thanked Martin and was about to give him a hug for the flowers until Andrea came over to them and asked Renee, "I don't mean to end this but can I have the flowers before they will die of dehydration, please?"

Agreeing with that, Renee told her that she's fine with it and gave Andrea the lilies so she can put them in a vase full of water in the kitchen. While Andrea was in the kitchen, doing that, Renee gave Martin a kiss on the cheek and the both of them are getting ready to go out to eat.

After helping Renee putting her jacket on and her grabbing her clutch, they said their good-byes to Andrea and after walking through the door frame and closing the door seconds later, Martin and Renee are heading to the elevators while Martin put his arms around Renee's body when she asked him about his first impressions about Andrea Parker.

"She seems like a great person and I am glad that I met her but she scares me a little at first." "How scared were you?" "Afraid that after she inspected me, she might touch and squeeze me to see if I am ripe enough for her and you which she didn't."

Hearing that, Renee looked at him while waiting for the elevator to be open and said to him, "What happened after that?" In return, Martin grabbed Renee's hand tightly and answered the question, "She let me be with you."


End file.
